Sometimes, Being Your Friend Hurts -- Traverse Town 2nd District [Open/COMPLETE]
Traverse Town had changed a lot since he was fourteen. It had lost much of its innocence. The whole world seems to be geared towards fighting the war and defending the people who appeared everyday. It was supposed to only be a way-station, a place for people to learn about the different worlds and then travel to them, but more and more of the refugees seemed to want to stay in the city of endless night and not get involved in the war. Sora could understand the need to protect what was left of your life, but staying on one world and hiding in an almost over-populated city had never been an option for him.
He had taken a slight beating from Donald for abandoning them to the curses of Cid, but it wasn't anything he hadn't grown used to over the years. And it was only through pleading and bargaining he had gotten them to let him wander off on his own again. He would be cleaning out the bathroom in their gummi ship for a few months, but he was allowed to check out the new shops and restaurants.
In all honesty, he was only half paying attention to the details. The world might be different, but it was still Traverse Town. Almost everything had lost some of its innocence or changed over the last four years, but just because something is carried though the course of time and molded by its surroundings didn't make it stop being what it was. Just because someone's body was twisted into a beastly shape by darkness and his mind slowly receding to animalistic tendencies didn't mean he wasn't human anymore. Just because someone wore a blindfold and hid behind the hood of a black coat didn't mean he wasn't Sora's friend. And just because a girl had become a woman didn't mean that she still didn't hold a special place in his heart. Things might change and they might alter, but they were still what they were... weren't they?
He wandered into the second district with a vague idea that he was supposed to visit the hotel.
It was almost instant; the shadows first appeared to have eyes and then took on shapes. The peace of the first district shattered in a matter of a couple seconds. Attracted, as always, by the Keyblade, the Heartless attacked and he was arrogant enough to grin before fighting them. Despite the fact that he was alone, without the aid of his anthropomorphic companions, he knew that these 'small fry' were no match for him and the Keyblade.
It appeared in his hands with the flash and sparkle of light. The fight with the first wave of Heartless was over almost too quickly for him, and the surge of power he felt from battle on familiar territory intensified his want to move, to fight, and to do some good even if it was like trying to hold back the ocean with his hands. If he had been a thinker, he might have realized that fighting the Heartless that were attracted to him because of the mythical weapon in his heart didn't really help out anyone, but the fact that he purposely ran deeper into the district proved that he wasn't a thinker, and never had been.
More Heartless appeared, and he put everything into his attacks. He trusted the Keyblade to do the thinking for him. The fight looked more like a dance, one where he knew all the steps by heart. His body was graceful. He had come a long way from the clumsy, reckless style of his youth. The Keyblade seemed almost like an extended limb. It was part of him, or perhaps more accurately, he was a part of it.
The fight lead him further into the district, and he mocked the Heartless with his voice and with his movements, drawing them in and attacking, jumping to reach those that flew, spinning like silk through air.
When he landed on cobblestones his cocky smile fell and, impossibly, he lost his balance. His heart felt as if someone had suddenly dumped it into ice cold water. The sensation spread through his body, freezing him. This cold had nothing to do with the snow that had gathered on the ground (he had been in snow before) this was a different kind of cold. It ate him alive without giving him frostbite. It was just like the darkness.
"Ah!" Sora cried out, a sound of pain and clutched at his heart with his free hand, gathering in his fist clothing and the crown necklace he had worn since his youth. A Heartless slashed out and Sora barely blocked its claws. The force of it pushed him back, he stumbled and fell.
The contact of the floor on his body made the painful freezing sensation amplify. Something horrible had happened here, and it affected him so much that for a moment he was open for attack.
For a moment, Sora was weak.
He had taken a slight beating from Donald for abandoning them to the curses of Cid, but it wasn't anything he hadn't grown used to over the years. And it was only through pleading and bargaining he had gotten them to let him wander off on his own again. He would be cleaning out the bathroom in their gummi ship for a few months, but he was allowed to check out the new shops and restaurants.
In all honesty, he was only half paying attention to the details. The world might be different, but it was still Traverse Town. Almost everything had lost some of its innocence or changed over the last four years, but just because something is carried though the course of time and molded by its surroundings didn't make it stop being what it was. Just because someone's body was twisted into a beastly shape by darkness and his mind slowly receding to animalistic tendencies didn't mean he wasn't human anymore. Just because someone wore a blindfold and hid behind the hood of a black coat didn't mean he wasn't Sora's friend. And just because a girl had become a woman didn't mean that she still didn't hold a special place in his heart. Things might change and they might alter, but they were still what they were... weren't they?
He wandered into the second district with a vague idea that he was supposed to visit the hotel.
It was almost instant; the shadows first appeared to have eyes and then took on shapes. The peace of the first district shattered in a matter of a couple seconds. Attracted, as always, by the Keyblade, the Heartless attacked and he was arrogant enough to grin before fighting them. Despite the fact that he was alone, without the aid of his anthropomorphic companions, he knew that these 'small fry' were no match for him and the Keyblade.
It appeared in his hands with the flash and sparkle of light. The fight with the first wave of Heartless was over almost too quickly for him, and the surge of power he felt from battle on familiar territory intensified his want to move, to fight, and to do some good even if it was like trying to hold back the ocean with his hands. If he had been a thinker, he might have realized that fighting the Heartless that were attracted to him because of the mythical weapon in his heart didn't really help out anyone, but the fact that he purposely ran deeper into the district proved that he wasn't a thinker, and never had been.
More Heartless appeared, and he put everything into his attacks. He trusted the Keyblade to do the thinking for him. The fight looked more like a dance, one where he knew all the steps by heart. His body was graceful. He had come a long way from the clumsy, reckless style of his youth. The Keyblade seemed almost like an extended limb. It was part of him, or perhaps more accurately, he was a part of it.
The fight lead him further into the district, and he mocked the Heartless with his voice and with his movements, drawing them in and attacking, jumping to reach those that flew, spinning like silk through air.
When he landed on cobblestones his cocky smile fell and, impossibly, he lost his balance. His heart felt as if someone had suddenly dumped it into ice cold water. The sensation spread through his body, freezing him. This cold had nothing to do with the snow that had gathered on the ground (he had been in snow before) this was a different kind of cold. It ate him alive without giving him frostbite. It was just like the darkness.
"Ah!" Sora cried out, a sound of pain and clutched at his heart with his free hand, gathering in his fist clothing and the crown necklace he had worn since his youth. A Heartless slashed out and Sora barely blocked its claws. The force of it pushed him back, he stumbled and fell.
The contact of the floor on his body made the painful freezing sensation amplify. Something horrible had happened here, and it affected him so much that for a moment he was open for attack.
For a moment, Sora was weak.