Now this is going to be a work in progress as I type this up, but I have a nice surprise for you all: a rewrite of the Seeker of Darkness saga, using anime series in the stead of Disney films.
Please note that the phonetics in paranthesis are meant to show pronunciations incase readers, mainly due to my knowledge in French and Japanese.
Also, this saga is being divided up into 5 seasons. Season 1 is the first game, Season 2 is the second game with flashbacks to Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days with coverage of Coded, Season 0 is Birth by Sleep, Season 2.8 is 3D and Fragmentary Passage, and Season 3 is obvious.
On and on—the darkness went on and on.
With a tiny little light to guide him, he walked on.
He heard a soft voice—then he felt a presence.
There you are!
So much to do, so little time...
Take your time. Don't be afraid.
The door is still shut.
Now, step forward. Can you do it
Power sleeps within you... If you give it form... It will give you strength.
And then the light will shine where you are.
The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.
But don't be afraid. And don't forget...
You hold the mightiest weapon of all.
So don't forget:
You are the one who will open the door.
Now, go.
And—the door to destiny began to open.
As his eyes slowly opened, the sunlight streamed in dazzlingly bright. The sound of the waves was the same as always, brushing softly against his mind.
Sora got up and stretched.
Before him the blue sky and sea stretched on and on. As far as he knew, that was the entire world.
This was Destiny Island—a little archipelago floating in the sea.
"Huh... What was it?"
He felt like he'd had a nightmare.
Was it scary...? No, something about it felt nice, too.
That voice—that light. And that dark black shadow—
And—was it really just a dream?
"Sora..."
"Whoa!"
Kairi (KYE-ree) suddenly appeared in front of his face. Sora jumped to his feet.
"Gimme a break, Kairi."
"Sora, you lazy bum. I knew that I'd find you snoozing down here."
Kairi leaned in, peering into Sora's face, and smiled. Her red hair glinted in the brilliant light that poured down from the sky and reflected off the sea and sand.
"No! This huge, black thing swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe! I couldn't—Ow!"
Whatever he was going to say got lost when Kairi knocked him on the head.
"Are you still dreaming?"
As she stared at him again, Sora began to feel uncertain about what he remembered. How could there be a pitch-black monster thing like that around here, under such a bright sky?
"It wasn't a dream! Or was it? I don't know."
Sora hung his head. Kairi gave him an exasperated look and walked down to the water's edge. Turned away from him, she felt just a little bit distant somehow. He didn't know what to say to her, but as he hesitated, Kairi looked back with a smile.
"We better star working on it. Riku's getting annoyed."
"Huh?" Startled, he turned, and Riku was standing there, holding a log and scowling.
"So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft."
It was a fairly heavy log. Riku tossed it to Sora with a shake of his silver hair.
"Ack!" Sora fumbled to catch the log.
Riku turned to Kairi. "And you're just as lazy as he is!"
"So you noticed." Kairi grinned and began ambling toward the inlet. "Okay, we'll finish it together. I'll race you!"
Laughing, she took off at a run.
"Huh? Seriously?" Sora hurried after her, and then Riku.
"Ready? Go!"
Kairi was already running, but at her words the other two broke into full speed.
The sun was still high. They had plenty of work ahead of them.
Haley Joel Osment as Sora
Hayden Panettiere as Kairi
Dave Gallagher as Riku
Stephanie Sheh as Usagi Tsukino (Ooh-SAH-ghee TSOO-key-no)
Sandy Fox as Chibiusa Tsukino (CHEE-bee-OOH-sah)
Kate Higgins as Ami Mizuno (AH-mee ME-zoo-no)
Cherami Leigh as Minako Aino (MEE-nah-koh EYE-no)
Cristina Valenzuela as Rei Hino (RAY HEE-no)
Amanda C. Miller as Makoto Kino (MAH-koh-toh KEY-no)
Christine Marie Cabanos as Hotaru Tomoe (HOH-tah-ru TOH-moh-eh)
Erica Mendez as Haruka Tenou (Hah-ROO-kah TEN-oh)
Lauren Landa as Michiru Kaiou (MEE-chee-roo KYE-oh)
Veronica Taylor as Setsuna Meiou (SETS-ooh-nah MAYO)
Michelle Ruff as Luna
Johnny Yong Bosch as Artemis
Debi Derryberry as Diana
"Riku, you get the logs...and some cloth and rope. Sora, you find some drinking water and some mushrooms for us to take. I'll wait here."
"Got it!"
Sora and Riku rook off running like it was another race, footsteps scrunching over the dry sand. A little ways off, they could hear Tidus and Wakka playing with wooden swords.
"Want to join them, Sora?"
"But won't Kairi be mad?"
Sora threw that out as an excuse. The truth was, he just couldn't win against Riku, which made it hard to be interested.
"Don't worry about that." Riku thumped him on the back and ran toward Tidus (TEE-duss) and Wakka (Wock-uh).
"Aw, geez..."
On this little island, pretty much any game the boys played was something competitive, and the perennial favorite was sword fighting. Wakka, a few years older than everyone else, acted as a teacher. Just recently Sora and Riku had become good enough to beat him once in a while. They were about even with Tidus.
"Here I come!" Tidus closed in on Wakka.
"Go, boys, go!" Selphie was hopping up and down, making the outward curl at the end of her hair bounce in time.
"I'm not done yet!" Wakka's voice rang out over the sound of wood striking wood, and Tidus' sword flew from his hand.
"Aw, nuts."
Tidus dejectedly plopped down on the sand.
Riku picked up the sword that had fallen some distance away and turned to Wakka. "My turn!"
"Hey, hey, gimme a little breather here," said Wakka, scratching his head through his bandanna, and tossed his stick over to Sora.
"You take him this time, Sora"
"But Kairi'll be upset..."
"You're wide open!"
As Sora stood there trying to get out of it, Riku leaped in to attack.
"Hey! No fair, Riku!"
"Fights don't have to be fair!"
Sora dodged his strike with a jump and finally grabbed a sword. There wasn't any getting out of it, then.
"Alright, come get me!" Riku smirked like he knew he hardly had to try. Sora couldn't stand it.
"Here I come!"
The wooden swords met with a clack! Sora threw himself into fighting just like Wakka had taught him, swinging straight down at Riku from over his head. Clack, clack, clack over and over. Sora's style mainly involved staying on the offensive.
"Ngh!"
"That's it, Sora! Keep going, push him right into the water!"
Just as Wakka cheered him on, Sora made a huge swing.
"Ouch!"
The sword leaped from Riku's hand and spun up into the air, then landed point down in the sand.
"Wow!" Tidus yelled.
Breathing hard, Sora held out a hand to Riku, who'd fallen on his rear.
"Tch. Let my guard down."
"Or I'm just better than you!" Sora grinned and pulled Riku to his feet, then took off toward the hill. "Race you to get all the supplies!"
"Alright!" Riku replied, dusing off sand, and ran in the other direction.
"Hey, hey, a race to get what?"
But Wakka's question went unheard as Sora and Riku ran off.
"Those two lately, and Kairi, too... I get the feeling they're up to something..." Selphie screwed up her face and titled her head in concentration.
Wakka shrugged. "Well, they've got Riku, so I wouldn't worry, yeah?"
"That's not the point!" Selphie said in a huff, kicking the sand.
"It's not fair! I wanna be in on it, too!" Tidus tried to follow them, but Sora had already disappeared into the bushes on the hillside and Riku into the sea.
"Mushrooms... where do I find more mushrooms?"
Sora wandered around the hill in search of mushrooms. The ones that grew on this island were all edible, and a while ago they'd even roasted some over a campfire. If they were planning to sail across the ovean for however many days, though, he needed to find more than that.
From up on the hill he could see Riku gathering things. He was carrying something that looked like a big piece of cloth.
Must be nice being Riku...
The thought stung in his chest. It felt like nothing more than an accident that he'd managed to win the sword fight. Sora was always the one who lost. School grades, sprinting, it didn't matter what–he couldn't beat Riku. If he could just win at something...
Sora slid down the hill and jumped into the thick foliage that grew beside the waterfall. Through there was the entrance to a little cave. It was their secret spot. Sora and Riku had found it and told Kairi.
"...Haven't been here in a while..."
Inside the cave, the constant sound of the waves was hushed to a whisper. Further in, the space was more open, like a great big room. And at the other end of it–that door. It was a big door, but without a doorknob or anything. It just sat there, as if in wait for a visitor from somewhere.
On the cave wall beside the door, there were dozens of doodles. One looked like a bunny with a magic wand standing on the moon. Another of a castle. And then there was a little doodle.
"...There it is."
Years ago, Kairi and Sora had drawn each other's faces on the wall, and they were still there. Sora crouched down and softly touched the scribbles.
If he could just be better than Riku...
Sora turned toward a small sound. "Wh-who's there?"
It was a man in a brown robe.
"I've come to see the door to this world," he declared in a deep gravely voice. Sora couldn't see his face beneath the hood.
"Huh?"
"This world has been connected."
"Wh-What are you talking about?"
The man showed no reaction to Sora and kept talking. "A world tied to the darkness... Soon to be completely eclipsed..."
At that a chill crept up Sora's spine. "Well, whoever you are, stop freaking me out like this. Huh? Wh-Where did you come from?!"
He didn't answer the question but said slowly, "There is so very much to learn. You understand so little."
"So, you're from another world!"
The man continued. "You do not yet know what lies beyond the door. A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing."
Sora had been staring at the mysterious man, but now he looked at the door.
That door, he thought. That big door... Didn't I see a door like that somewhere else, just a while ago...?
"Hey, who are you–"
Sora looked back again, but the man was gone.
When he left the cave, the brilliant sunlight made him blink. The island spread out before him with its brilliant sea and sky, and what had just happened in the cave seemed to be a dream.
Armus full of the mushrooms he'd gathered in the cave, he began to run down to the inlet where Kairi and Riku would be waiting.
That man–and the door. It did feel like a dream. And no one would believe him if he said anything about it. Here on this little archipelago called Destiny Islands, there wasn't a single person they didn't know. Not even anyone from across the ocean–no, wait there was one person.
Kairi.
She came from across the ocean, people said. Kairi came from another world across the ocean, somewhere we've never seen or even heard of. That's why we're going to find out...
"Sora! You're late!"
"Sorry! It was hard to find enough mushrooms..."
Winded from running, Sora held up the stockpile of fungi for Kairi to see. As soon as he saw her face, the incident with the strange man was gone from his mind. Kairi and Riku were standing beside a soaringly tall tree trunk.
"Wooow. You really found a lot, huh!"
"Not bad for you!"
They both laughed, relieving him of the armfuls of mushrooms.
"Right, Sora–this looks like a good sail, don't you think?" said Riku.
Sora looked up at the cloth tied to the tree trunk like a flag. "Where'd you find a piece that big?"
"Oh, nowhere." Riku shrugged and smiled and then began to climb up the trunk. "If there's a storm, we have to climb up the mast and lower the sail.
"I know that."
Kairi watched their back-and-forth, giggling.
The three of them were building a raft, a nice big one. A raft that would take them to worlds they'd never seen before. They lashed several logs together with some rope and stood up the trunk for a mast. Then the sail went up, made from the cloth that Riku had found, flapping in the sea breeze.
"She looks seaworthy already!" Kairi exclaimed.
Riku leaped down from the mast. "Yeah. On this we can go anywhere we want," he said, gazing into the distance beyond the perfectly smooth horizon. The sun was sinking low, the sky shifting from clear blue to deep crimson.
"Hey, Sora," he said, looking at the mast again. "We haven't given our ship a name yet."
"Heh. Right, we should!" Kairi looked up at the mast, too. "A sail like that is sure to catch the wind."
The sail hung quietly over them, the sail that would help the raft cut through the waters.
"What should we call her?"
At Kairi's prompting, Sora mentioned the name he'd been thinking of all day. "How about... the Excalibur?"
"The Excalibur..." Riku softly repeated it. "When she sets out to sea, she'll cut through the waters like a sword."
"Pretty good, right?" said Sora. Riku gave him a nod.
"The Excalibur it is, then!" Kairi grinned and clung to the mast, turning her gaze out to the open sea. "...It's getting late huh?"
Riku and Sora, too, saw that the sky above the horizon was glowing a brilliant red and the sun would soon disappear below it.
"If we go to the very end of the sea... I bet we'll find the world where you came from, Kairi."
Sora said it like he wanted confirmation. Kairi turned slowly away, staring into the distance.
"Could be. We'll never know by staying here," Riku replied, arms folded.
"But how far could a raft take us?" said Sora.
Riku looked at him, and back out to the sea. "Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else."
The sun sank lower toward the horizon turning the sea and even the sand red./
They had watched this very scene together countless times, but to Sora, it looked just a little bit different today. Something about that made him unseasy.
After this... what's going to happen to us?
I want to see other worlds, he thought.
There was the sea, always so calm, though storms came once in a while. There were the beautiful sandy beaches. There were birds on the hills and even mushrooms to eat, and... Riku and Kairi, Tidus and Selphie and Wakka. Mom and Dad and the other people in town. All the wonderful friends he had fun with here on Destiny Islands. But the landscape that Sora saw was always the same. If he could just see a different world... maybe something would change.
So he wanted to try going somewhere else.
"So, suppose you get to another world. What would you do there?" Kairi asked Riku a little nervously. "Do you just want to see, like Sora?"
"It's just... I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?" Riku paused for a moment, as if listening to the waves, and then went on. "And suppose there are other worlds... Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater." Then he turned to Sora and Kairi. "So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"
A little piece of something greater. This was pretty complicated. Not quite following, Sora flopped over on the raft. "I don't know."
Riku looked at him with a little sigh and started walking down toward the shore. "Exactly. That's why we need to go out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing."
Sora turned to the sea, his eye following on Riku.
"It's the same old stuff. So let's go."
"You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Kairi said softly.
"Thanks to you. If you hadn't come here, I probably would've never thought of any of this." Riku turned away from the setting sun to look at her. "Kairi, thanks."
Those word sounded more earnest to Sora than anything he had ever heard. He felt his heart skip a beat.
"Heh, you're welcome," Kairi said with a shy laugh, turning to the sea again.
"Well... Guess I better get going. You two shouldn't stay out to late, either." Riku took off for the pier at a brisk pace, as if suddenly embarrassed by what he'd said.
Staring after him, Kairi said in a tiny voice, "You know, Riku has changed."
"What do you mean?" said Sora. If there was anything different about Riku, he couldn't tell. It seemed like the usual Riku to him.
"Well... Hmm. You don't think so?"
"Nope, it's just you."
Kairi looked a little sad at that. But then she blurted, "Sora, let's take the raft and go—just the two of us!"
She peered at Sora with a mischievous grin.
"Huh? What's gotten into you? You're the one that's changed, Kairi."
"Maybe..."
She started ambling down the to the beach. Something small and bright fell out of her pocket.
"Kairi, you dropped something."
"Oh—" She carefully picked it up and showed it to him. It was a pendant made of seashells, tied together into the shape of a star.
"What is it?"
"I'm making thalassa shell charms. In the old days, sailors always wore them. They're supposed to ensure a safe voyage."
"A sailor's charm huh..."
Sora gazed at the charm in the palm of Kairi's hand.
"I'm making them so even if one of us gets lost, we'll make it back here safe and sound. ...So the three of us will always be together."
She placed it gently back in her pocket. The sun had already fallen halfway below the horizon.
"You know, I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready." Kairi looked at Sora, speaking like she'd made up her mind. "No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here."
He ran to catch up with her. "Yeah, of course!"
I still want to come back to Destiny Island, too, he thought. I want to see other worlds, but I'll come back. To the sea and the sky and everyone here. To this place with Kairi and Riku.
"That's good... Sora, don't ever change"
"Huh?"
Kairi smiled at his startled sound. "I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."
"Yeah... We'll make it, for sure."
The sun was nearly gone now. The waves went on and on with their calm, soft rush.
A synthetic Westminster chime rang out.
Azabu (Ah-ZAH-boo) High School stood tall as a small trickle of rain poured across the Juuban (JOO-bahn) district. Students were walking home from school after classes had ended for the day. Among them were a group of four girls joining up with a fifth wearing a different uniform, all tucked beneath their umbrellas. As this was still their first year in high school, the girls' first order of business was a doozy for one of them.
"What!?"
A blonde girl with twintails shouted out loud with her eyes sinking back and jaw dropping.
"What do you mean we have to study!?"
A slightly taller girl with shorter blue hair chimed in. "It's just as we have been doing on and off over summer, Usagi. We all have futures ahead of us and high school is a big factor in that."
The girl in the different uniform spoke up. "Ami's right, Usagi. We need to take care of whatever our curriculums throw at us if we are to achieve our dreams!" The black-haired girl spoke with a bit of a puff in her chest, as if she was saying this as a speech to a king.
A second blonde, roughly the same height as the one called Usagi joined in. "They're both right. We had a lot of ups and downs before we got here. I even had the time to audition to become an idol."
The tall brunette inserted herself into the conversation. "Well, if I am to find a new boyfriend, I have a lot of home ec to take care of."
A pair of cats decided to join in, one black and one white. This would be a normal sight to anyone, but to these girls, they were beyond normal. The cats were soon followed by a small elementary schoolgirl. She looked like a smaller version of Usagi, but with pink hair and cone-shaped odango (oh-DONG-oh) compared to her bun-shaped odango. The small girl must have been listening in on the conversation as she made her presence known by giggling. She also had a kitten with her, a small gray one.
"Chibiusa!" shouted Usagi.
Chibiusa giggled again. "You should know better Usagi. Seeing as you will become my mother in the 30th Century."
She was right. Chibiusa was in fact Usagi's daughter from a thousand years into the future, in a time when Tokyo had become a crystalline utopia. Chibiusa's reminder was about how despite everything, the Usagi of the future was not as literate as one would expect, with her handwriting still looking sloppy. Usually in these times, Usagi would turn to help from a number of people, notably her old friend Gurio Umino (Goo-ree-oh Ooh-MEE-no), one of the smartest people at Juuban Middle School, her best friend Naru Osaka who was also Umino's girlfriend, or even her beloved Mamoru Chiba (MAH-moe-roo CHEE-bah), her husband in that same future.
"I feel like we should study at Mamoru's," suggested Usagi. "He might be able to help us all out."
One of the cats, the black one, spoke up in a female voice. "That's an unusually smart decision for you Usagi."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Luna."
The white one spoke next in a male voice. "But she is right, Usagi. Normally, it would be either Ami or Rei who would be suggesting that idea."
"Thank you for the compliment, Artemis," said the girl in the different uniform, Rei apparently.
The girls continued their way to an apartment complex resembling a castle and arrived at their destined floor. They knocked on the door to alert the occupant that they were coming in, and opened the door.
"Hi, Mamo-kun. It's us, just coming over to study..." Usagi started her sentence before trailing off when she sensed that something was off. Normally, Mamoru would be studying for his college work, but the apartment was just empty. There was a note on the coffee table.
Usa-ko
I'm sorry that I vanished without letting you know, but there is a storm on the horizon, and there is no time to lose. I'd better leave right away.
The stars have been starting to vanish, one-by-one, and that means that disaster can't be far behind.
I hate to leave you and your friends, but I have to look into this.
As the future king of Crystal Tokyo, I ask you, Chibiusa, and your fellow Sailor Guardians to do something.
There's someone out there with a "key"—the key to our survival. So I need you to find him and stick together. Do you understand?
We need the key, or we're doomed.
Head to Traverse Town and find a man called Leon. He'll point you in the right direction.
P.S. Please let Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru, and Setsuna know of my absence
This was the note he left behind. A very important letter from one of their closest allies—and their very dear friend. If this was all true, things were serious. A strange problem with the stars vanishing from the night sky and the disaster on the way. Did this mean that Mamoru was about to take a demonic bull by the gnarled horns?
Usagi began to freak out. But then again, she knew that there was someone who would be able to help with the situation. They just simply needed to take a bus to an otherwise remote cottage outside of Tokyo. But it would have to wait until the morning. It wasn't a school night anyway.
By the morn, the girls had all headed onto the bus to the cottage, where they met up with the three former students of Mugen Academy; Setsuna Meiou, Haruka Tenou, and Michiru Kaiou, alongside the young Hotaru Tomoe, ever delighted to see Chibiusa.
"So, bunhead," said Haruka. "What brings you out here?"
Usagi started to stammer. "We-we've got a big problem!"
"Like how big?"
A wind-chime jingled. The ten girls were in the dining room of the cottage, deep in serious conversation.
"...That's how it is," said Luna after explaining to the three.
"It is as I feared," Setsuna worried. "But we must trust our future king."
"I hope he's alright," said Hotaru.
Usagi spoke with determination. "Whatever the matter is, we'll find Mamo-kun and this 'key'."
Michiru gave a slight chuckle. "Well it's best if we split up into three groups." Haruka nodded to her partner's suggestion. "After all, I've felt two similar presences. Maybe there's two of these 'keys'."
"Hotaru, the cats, and I will serve as your reconnaissance," Setsuna said with a bow. "If it is what I believe it is from my service in Crystal Tokyo, then it is best that I explain: Mamoru has left this world in order to prevent the destruction of other worlds."
The other nine girls looked at Setsuna with confusion. "What other worlds?"
Setsuna shook her head. "I was previously forbidden from telling you this from Queen Serenity, but our world is not the only world in existence."
There was that name again for them all: Queen Serenity, the ruler of the Silver Millennium of ancient times and queen of the Moon Kingdom. Through her, she gave birth to a young princess who was doomed to never become queen by a jealous sorceress, with her kingdom being brought down by an equally jealous woman from the Earth Kingdom. It was also through her that a special power would awaken within the girls: the ability to transform into Sailor Guardians through the Silver Millennium's holy artifact, the Legendary Silver Crystal.
Setsuna drew up a diagram on a piece of paper to explain. "Let's say that this crescent is our world. And let's say that this heart is a different one altogether. In that world, we do not exist. Do you understand so far?" Everyone nodded. "Good. Now let's say that we multiplied this tenfold. Mamoru is traveling this multitude of worlds to find the 'key' and save all of existence."
"But how is he doing that?" asked Usagi.
"When the Queen told me this information, she also told me of the existence of an ancient technology called 'Gummi'. While it sounds like it would be some sort of candy, that is the only connection they have; the name. Gummi refers to a sort of shard made from pieces of a world's barrier whenever someone enters and exits that world. It is likely that Mamoru is using one such piece of Gummi to travel between worlds. The Queen had also told me that these Gummi blocks were also used to assemble the Ark that you, Minako, had once used in the Silver Millennium and later during your quest in Turkey."
"You mean we have to go all the way back to Istanbul to get it!?" Minako was the one to panic this time.
"No," answered Setsuna. "I have taken the liberty of having it stored away near where Dr. Tomoe's laboratory was once located"
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"So does this really mean that we can visit other worlds?" asked Diana, the small gray kitten.
"Outside of Juuban, you mustn't let anyone know that you come from another world," Setsuna warned them firmly.
"What do you mean?"
"Those who travel between worlds are advised to avoid meddling in the affairs of other worlds and informing their inhabitants of the existence of other worlds. Doing so will likely lead to another calamity across the known multiverse." Setsuna drew a featureless but evil grinning face on the diagram.
"In certain cases, your disguise pens will allow you to alter your appearances to avoid standing out in certain worlds. This is in order to..."
"..maintain the world border?" asked Usagi.
"Close, but I will give you that, Princess Serenity." Setsuna referred to Usagi by the name that the Queen had given her in her past life.
"But why were you and Queen Serenity the only ones who knew of other worlds?" asked Luna.
Setsuna answered again. "It was a closely guarded secret between the two of us. The Door of Space and Time can not only be used as a way to travel through time or cross distances on the physical plane, but it can also reach into other worlds. I once saw a parallel world from ours where Princess Serenity took the role of the Messiah of Silence."
There was an understood cold shudder among the collective. Setsuna was also looking at Chibiusa and Hotaru when she said this.
"Does that mean...?" asked the pink-haired girl.
"I am sorry, Small Lady. I was unable to confirm if you were in that same world."
A silence broke through the collective. That was one universe they were glad to have avoided.
"So," breathed Haruka. "It looks like we'll have to head back to school."
"And in this case, I will be signing a leave of absence to Azabu High and the TA Academy for you all."
Ami slightly frowned. She was looking forward to the new school year. But if the worlds were at stake, that would be a necessary sacrifice.
After a brief write-up to the respective schools, Setsuna and Haruka drove the group to the old laboratory just a little away from Mugen Academy. Heading down into the depths brought back unpleasant memories for them all, especially for Hotaru.
After a long descent down the lab, they soon came upon the Ark. This was to be their vessel for traveling between worlds, their Gummi Ship. The group boarded the ship and began to start it up. The engine started with a bomf! and the ship shook.
"Blast off!" Minako pointed forward as a track appeared before them. The ship zoomed forward and sped into the stars
Lightning flashed, and in nearly the same, moment, rain came pattering down on the roof.
"...Rain?"
Sora sat up and looked out the window. His house was on a bigger island, a little ways off from the small one where he and his friends always went to play. A little house in a little town—that was where he lived. Since he came home, he'd been spacing out, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about what happened today and what was going to happen soon.
The rain started to come down harder. Showers after sunset weren't that rare here. The ocean here was usually calm, but once in a while, there would be downpours or storms.
Still...
Lightning flashed again. Sora could tell...
"It's coming from our island!"
He jumped out of bed.
Sora took his kid-sized rowboat and hurried to their island. There was a nice big reef surrounding it, so anything less than a hurricane wouldn't cause much damage. But at the moment, there was a small raft to worry about
If the raft got swept away...
Luckily the waves weren't very high yet. The raft should be okay if he just tied it good and tight to a cocoyum tree.
Rolling thunder enveloped the island. Sora looked up at the starless night sky to see a ball of darkly glowing energy floating in the air. "What's that?!"
When he climbed up onto the dock, he saw that there were two other small boats.
"Riku's boat. And Kairi's!"
He ran in from the dock to the beach, but some kind of shadow rose up from the ground, blocking his path.
"...What's going on?!"
He swung his wooden sword around, and it felt like he hit something, but the shadow didn't go away. In fact, more and more of them appeared.
"Ugh, they just keep coming..." Sora gave up trying to beat them and rand along the beach, looking for Kairi and Riku. The wind swallowed up his voice as he shouted their names. At the waterfall, he paused and looked around. Then he saw it—in front of the bushes that hid the path to their secret spot, there was a big white door.
"What...?"
Suddenly he remembered the strange man he'd met in the afternoon.
Soon to be completely eclipsed—
No way, Sora thought. But he was definitely saying something like that... Anyway, I have to find Riku and Kairi.
Holding the shadowy things at bay with his wooden sword, Sora looked around again.
"Riku!"
He could see Riku standing in the darkness, facing the sea, his silver hair whipping in the howling wind.
Sora ran to him. "Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!"
Riku slowly turned. "The door has opened..."
"What?"
Something wasn't quite right about him. He was different. And what was this about a door? Didi he mean that white door? Or...
"The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!" Riku said in a rush, a strange excitement in his eyes.
"What are you talking about? We've gotta find Kairi!"
"Kairi's coming with us!" Riku shouted at the top of his voice. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
As he went on, eeroe dark energy gathered above his head.
"Riku..."
"Let's go, Sora!"
Smiling, Riku stretched out his hand, but at his feet the darkness swarmed and grew, twisting itself around his legs—and in the blink of an eye, it had covered him completely.
"Riku!"
Sora tried to run toward him, but when he stepped into that darkness, it began twining up his body, too.
Smiling in the midst of the darkness, Riku called his name. "...Sora..."
But Sora couldn't reach him. Riku was engulfed in darkness, and just as Sora was about to be swallowed up, too, a shining light shone from inside it and drove it away.
For a moment Sora had to shut his eyes against the brightness. When he opened them up again, there was a giant shining key in his hand. A voice echoed in his head—
Keyblade...
As if on cue, the dark, shadowy things came up from the ground again. Sora swung the key—the Keyblade—at them, and this time they disappeared.
"...Riku?" With the Keyblade still firmly in his hand, Sora looked around, but couldn't see Riku anywhere. "Riku! Where are you? Riku!"
Sora ran, swinging the Keyblade as he searched. No matter how many of the shadowy things he defeated, more kept springing up. Finally he was in front of the white door again.
"...Huh?"
The door was opening, almost as if to invite him inside. This was the only place left on the island where Kairi and Riku could be. Sora ran through the door.
"Riku... Kairi!"
There was the cave—their secret spot, just the same as ever. The only difference was that glowing door at the end. And in front of the door, Kairi stood silently starting at it.
"Kairi!" Sora dashed toward her.
She turned to look at him, slowly and sadly. "Sora..."
The moment she reached out for him, the door began to open. Ink-black darkness erupted ou, blowing her toward him like the blast from an explosion. He tried to catch her in his arms—but her body just faded out. She passed through him and vanished.
It was like she;d been sucked into Sora himself. He called her name, but with a huge rush, Sora and the door to the island were all hurled away in the wind.
"What's happening—?!"
Thrown out onto the sand, Sora pounded the ground with his fist. Inches away, the ground just dropped off, like a cliff. He looked up and saw that dark sphere covering the entire island. And a huge black shadow was standing right in front of him.
This isn't our Destiny Island anymore, he thought
Riku isn't here. Kairi's gone, too.
So how am I still here?
Sora was still on his hands and knees. The huge shadow swiped at him, knocking him aside.
He ground, and the Keyblade glowed in his hand.
"Power sleeps within you... If you give it form... It will give you strength."
I feel like someone's speaking to me. Power sleeping within me...? I don't have any power. I can only just barely beat Riku. So how...
"No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here."
But Kairi disappeared. Riku, too. And now even the island's about to disappear3 Can we really ever come back here? All three of us?
"Make it so the three of you can always be together."
Sora thought of Kairi's smile. Kairi and Riku and me. So we'll always be together So we can come back here.
The Keyblade shone brightly, like it was reacting to Sora's emotions. There's no way I'm gonna lose. So I can go see other worlds, so the three of us can run on the beach together...
He stood up and took a huge leap, and his attack became trails of light that wounded the shadow.
"Yaaaaah! I won't lose!"
Two, three blows from the Keyblade he wielded, and wounds made of light kept appearing on the giant shadow.
"You're not gonna beat me!"
Sora felt the Keyblade pierce something, and the shadow let out and enormous roar.
"...I did it..."
Bellowing in fury, the shadow was sucked into the dark sphere up above.
"Kairi...," Sora whispered. Before he could take another breath, the sphere raged and howled, swelling up and dragging what remained of the island into it, along with Sora. With a terrible rumbling, it swallowed up the cocoyum trees, the rowboats, even the sea...
Sora strained to hold on to the wreckage of the wooden bridge, but the huge force pulled him off. In a swirl of debris, he fell into the dark sphere and disappeared.
À suivre
(music cue: Heart Moving)
(music cue: Sailor Moon Preview Music)
Next time on Kingdom Hearts:
Sora awakens in a new place, separated from his friends. The Sailor Guardians begin their search for the Key and for Mamoru. When fate brings them together, Sora, Usagi, and the Guardians set out on a grand adventure to find their friends!
Next time: Traverse Town: Encounter
The moonlight is a messenger of love!
Yes as you can tell, I have in mind the use of Sailor Moon to replace Mickey and the gang as hre story is more or less the gateway drug to anime in general especially back in the 90s when it was dubbed by DiC. As you can also tell, I am using the Viz Media cast for Sailor Moon as the new dub of the classic series is closest to the original Japanese
As for how the Sailor Guardians look overall, at least casually:
They are in their uniforms as seen in the Eternal and Cosmos films, as I am making this a sort of blend between the continuity of the 90's anime and the manga, acting as a broad strokes.
And for anyone wondering what was that whole bit with Princess Serenity as Messiah of Silence, it's a reference to the live action Tokusatsu series "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" where Princess Serenity was responsible for bringing about the end of the Silver Millenium; Chibiusa and Hotaru's concern has to do with the fact that neither of them, plus the three Outer Guardians were present in that series, with Luna filling in for Chibiusa as the sixth Sailor Guardian.
As for the Ark that Setsuna mentions, it is originally from the SNES RPG Sailor Moon -another story- where it serves as the game's equivalent to Final Fantasy's airships, allowing players to jump from Canada, to Switzerland, to Lhasa, to Turkey, to Tokyo, to the North Pole, and the Moon. It will be filling in for the Highwind in this saga, hence why I have Sora's default name for the raft be the one used instead of the canon name of Highwind.
Please note that the phonetics in paranthesis are meant to show pronunciations incase readers, mainly due to my knowledge in French and Japanese.
Also, this saga is being divided up into 5 seasons. Season 1 is the first game, Season 2 is the second game with flashbacks to Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days with coverage of Coded, Season 0 is Birth by Sleep, Season 2.8 is 3D and Fragmentary Passage, and Season 3 is obvious.
On and on—the darkness went on and on.
With a tiny little light to guide him, he walked on.
He heard a soft voice—then he felt a presence.
There you are!
So much to do, so little time...
Take your time. Don't be afraid.
The door is still shut.
Now, step forward. Can you do it
Power sleeps within you... If you give it form... It will give you strength.
And then the light will shine where you are.
The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.
But don't be afraid. And don't forget...
You hold the mightiest weapon of all.
So don't forget:
You are the one who will open the door.
Now, go.
And—the door to destiny began to open.
As his eyes slowly opened, the sunlight streamed in dazzlingly bright. The sound of the waves was the same as always, brushing softly against his mind.
Sora got up and stretched.
Before him the blue sky and sea stretched on and on. As far as he knew, that was the entire world.
This was Destiny Island—a little archipelago floating in the sea.
"Huh... What was it?"
He felt like he'd had a nightmare.
Was it scary...? No, something about it felt nice, too.
That voice—that light. And that dark black shadow—
And—was it really just a dream?
"Sora..."
"Whoa!"
Kairi (KYE-ree) suddenly appeared in front of his face. Sora jumped to his feet.
"Gimme a break, Kairi."
"Sora, you lazy bum. I knew that I'd find you snoozing down here."
Kairi leaned in, peering into Sora's face, and smiled. Her red hair glinted in the brilliant light that poured down from the sky and reflected off the sea and sand.
"No! This huge, black thing swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe! I couldn't—Ow!"
Whatever he was going to say got lost when Kairi knocked him on the head.
"Are you still dreaming?"
As she stared at him again, Sora began to feel uncertain about what he remembered. How could there be a pitch-black monster thing like that around here, under such a bright sky?
"It wasn't a dream! Or was it? I don't know."
Sora hung his head. Kairi gave him an exasperated look and walked down to the water's edge. Turned away from him, she felt just a little bit distant somehow. He didn't know what to say to her, but as he hesitated, Kairi looked back with a smile.
"We better star working on it. Riku's getting annoyed."
"Huh?" Startled, he turned, and Riku was standing there, holding a log and scowling.
"So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft."
It was a fairly heavy log. Riku tossed it to Sora with a shake of his silver hair.
"Ack!" Sora fumbled to catch the log.
Riku turned to Kairi. "And you're just as lazy as he is!"
"So you noticed." Kairi grinned and began ambling toward the inlet. "Okay, we'll finish it together. I'll race you!"
Laughing, she took off at a run.
"Huh? Seriously?" Sora hurried after her, and then Riku.
"Ready? Go!"
Kairi was already running, but at her words the other two broke into full speed.
The sun was still high. They had plenty of work ahead of them.
Kingdom Hearts
-Anime Edition-
-Anime Edition-
Haley Joel Osment as Sora
Hayden Panettiere as Kairi
Dave Gallagher as Riku
Stephanie Sheh as Usagi Tsukino (Ooh-SAH-ghee TSOO-key-no)
Sandy Fox as Chibiusa Tsukino (CHEE-bee-OOH-sah)
Kate Higgins as Ami Mizuno (AH-mee ME-zoo-no)
Cherami Leigh as Minako Aino (MEE-nah-koh EYE-no)
Cristina Valenzuela as Rei Hino (RAY HEE-no)
Amanda C. Miller as Makoto Kino (MAH-koh-toh KEY-no)
Christine Marie Cabanos as Hotaru Tomoe (HOH-tah-ru TOH-moh-eh)
Erica Mendez as Haruka Tenou (Hah-ROO-kah TEN-oh)
Lauren Landa as Michiru Kaiou (MEE-chee-roo KYE-oh)
Veronica Taylor as Setsuna Meiou (SETS-ooh-nah MAYO)
Michelle Ruff as Luna
Johnny Yong Bosch as Artemis
Debi Derryberry as Diana
"Riku, you get the logs...and some cloth and rope. Sora, you find some drinking water and some mushrooms for us to take. I'll wait here."
"Got it!"
Sora and Riku rook off running like it was another race, footsteps scrunching over the dry sand. A little ways off, they could hear Tidus and Wakka playing with wooden swords.
"Want to join them, Sora?"
"But won't Kairi be mad?"
Sora threw that out as an excuse. The truth was, he just couldn't win against Riku, which made it hard to be interested.
"Don't worry about that." Riku thumped him on the back and ran toward Tidus (TEE-duss) and Wakka (Wock-uh).
"Aw, geez..."
On this little island, pretty much any game the boys played was something competitive, and the perennial favorite was sword fighting. Wakka, a few years older than everyone else, acted as a teacher. Just recently Sora and Riku had become good enough to beat him once in a while. They were about even with Tidus.
"Here I come!" Tidus closed in on Wakka.
"Go, boys, go!" Selphie was hopping up and down, making the outward curl at the end of her hair bounce in time.
"I'm not done yet!" Wakka's voice rang out over the sound of wood striking wood, and Tidus' sword flew from his hand.
"Aw, nuts."
Tidus dejectedly plopped down on the sand.
Riku picked up the sword that had fallen some distance away and turned to Wakka. "My turn!"
"Hey, hey, gimme a little breather here," said Wakka, scratching his head through his bandanna, and tossed his stick over to Sora.
"You take him this time, Sora"
"But Kairi'll be upset..."
"You're wide open!"
As Sora stood there trying to get out of it, Riku leaped in to attack.
"Hey! No fair, Riku!"
"Fights don't have to be fair!"
Sora dodged his strike with a jump and finally grabbed a sword. There wasn't any getting out of it, then.
"Alright, come get me!" Riku smirked like he knew he hardly had to try. Sora couldn't stand it.
"Here I come!"
The wooden swords met with a clack! Sora threw himself into fighting just like Wakka had taught him, swinging straight down at Riku from over his head. Clack, clack, clack over and over. Sora's style mainly involved staying on the offensive.
"Ngh!"
"That's it, Sora! Keep going, push him right into the water!"
Just as Wakka cheered him on, Sora made a huge swing.
"Ouch!"
The sword leaped from Riku's hand and spun up into the air, then landed point down in the sand.
"Wow!" Tidus yelled.
Breathing hard, Sora held out a hand to Riku, who'd fallen on his rear.
"Tch. Let my guard down."
"Or I'm just better than you!" Sora grinned and pulled Riku to his feet, then took off toward the hill. "Race you to get all the supplies!"
"Alright!" Riku replied, dusing off sand, and ran in the other direction.
"Hey, hey, a race to get what?"
But Wakka's question went unheard as Sora and Riku ran off.
"Those two lately, and Kairi, too... I get the feeling they're up to something..." Selphie screwed up her face and titled her head in concentration.
Wakka shrugged. "Well, they've got Riku, so I wouldn't worry, yeah?"
"That's not the point!" Selphie said in a huff, kicking the sand.
"It's not fair! I wanna be in on it, too!" Tidus tried to follow them, but Sora had already disappeared into the bushes on the hillside and Riku into the sea.
"Mushrooms... where do I find more mushrooms?"
Sora wandered around the hill in search of mushrooms. The ones that grew on this island were all edible, and a while ago they'd even roasted some over a campfire. If they were planning to sail across the ovean for however many days, though, he needed to find more than that.
From up on the hill he could see Riku gathering things. He was carrying something that looked like a big piece of cloth.
Must be nice being Riku...
The thought stung in his chest. It felt like nothing more than an accident that he'd managed to win the sword fight. Sora was always the one who lost. School grades, sprinting, it didn't matter what–he couldn't beat Riku. If he could just win at something...
Sora slid down the hill and jumped into the thick foliage that grew beside the waterfall. Through there was the entrance to a little cave. It was their secret spot. Sora and Riku had found it and told Kairi.
"...Haven't been here in a while..."
Inside the cave, the constant sound of the waves was hushed to a whisper. Further in, the space was more open, like a great big room. And at the other end of it–that door. It was a big door, but without a doorknob or anything. It just sat there, as if in wait for a visitor from somewhere.
On the cave wall beside the door, there were dozens of doodles. One looked like a bunny with a magic wand standing on the moon. Another of a castle. And then there was a little doodle.
"...There it is."
Years ago, Kairi and Sora had drawn each other's faces on the wall, and they were still there. Sora crouched down and softly touched the scribbles.
If he could just be better than Riku...
Sora turned toward a small sound. "Wh-who's there?"
It was a man in a brown robe.
"I've come to see the door to this world," he declared in a deep gravely voice. Sora couldn't see his face beneath the hood.
"Huh?"
"This world has been connected."
"Wh-What are you talking about?"
The man showed no reaction to Sora and kept talking. "A world tied to the darkness... Soon to be completely eclipsed..."
At that a chill crept up Sora's spine. "Well, whoever you are, stop freaking me out like this. Huh? Wh-Where did you come from?!"
He didn't answer the question but said slowly, "There is so very much to learn. You understand so little."
"So, you're from another world!"
The man continued. "You do not yet know what lies beyond the door. A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing."
Sora had been staring at the mysterious man, but now he looked at the door.
That door, he thought. That big door... Didn't I see a door like that somewhere else, just a while ago...?
"Hey, who are you–"
Sora looked back again, but the man was gone.
When he left the cave, the brilliant sunlight made him blink. The island spread out before him with its brilliant sea and sky, and what had just happened in the cave seemed to be a dream.
Armus full of the mushrooms he'd gathered in the cave, he began to run down to the inlet where Kairi and Riku would be waiting.
That man–and the door. It did feel like a dream. And no one would believe him if he said anything about it. Here on this little archipelago called Destiny Islands, there wasn't a single person they didn't know. Not even anyone from across the ocean–no, wait there was one person.
Kairi.
She came from across the ocean, people said. Kairi came from another world across the ocean, somewhere we've never seen or even heard of. That's why we're going to find out...
"Sora! You're late!"
"Sorry! It was hard to find enough mushrooms..."
Winded from running, Sora held up the stockpile of fungi for Kairi to see. As soon as he saw her face, the incident with the strange man was gone from his mind. Kairi and Riku were standing beside a soaringly tall tree trunk.
"Wooow. You really found a lot, huh!"
"Not bad for you!"
They both laughed, relieving him of the armfuls of mushrooms.
"Right, Sora–this looks like a good sail, don't you think?" said Riku.
Sora looked up at the cloth tied to the tree trunk like a flag. "Where'd you find a piece that big?"
"Oh, nowhere." Riku shrugged and smiled and then began to climb up the trunk. "If there's a storm, we have to climb up the mast and lower the sail.
"I know that."
Kairi watched their back-and-forth, giggling.
The three of them were building a raft, a nice big one. A raft that would take them to worlds they'd never seen before. They lashed several logs together with some rope and stood up the trunk for a mast. Then the sail went up, made from the cloth that Riku had found, flapping in the sea breeze.
"She looks seaworthy already!" Kairi exclaimed.
Riku leaped down from the mast. "Yeah. On this we can go anywhere we want," he said, gazing into the distance beyond the perfectly smooth horizon. The sun was sinking low, the sky shifting from clear blue to deep crimson.
"Hey, Sora," he said, looking at the mast again. "We haven't given our ship a name yet."
"Heh. Right, we should!" Kairi looked up at the mast, too. "A sail like that is sure to catch the wind."
The sail hung quietly over them, the sail that would help the raft cut through the waters.
"What should we call her?"
At Kairi's prompting, Sora mentioned the name he'd been thinking of all day. "How about... the Excalibur?"
"The Excalibur..." Riku softly repeated it. "When she sets out to sea, she'll cut through the waters like a sword."
"Pretty good, right?" said Sora. Riku gave him a nod.
"The Excalibur it is, then!" Kairi grinned and clung to the mast, turning her gaze out to the open sea. "...It's getting late huh?"
Riku and Sora, too, saw that the sky above the horizon was glowing a brilliant red and the sun would soon disappear below it.
"If we go to the very end of the sea... I bet we'll find the world where you came from, Kairi."
Sora said it like he wanted confirmation. Kairi turned slowly away, staring into the distance.
"Could be. We'll never know by staying here," Riku replied, arms folded.
"But how far could a raft take us?" said Sora.
Riku looked at him, and back out to the sea. "Who knows? If we have to, we'll think of something else."
The sun sank lower toward the horizon turning the sea and even the sand red./
They had watched this very scene together countless times, but to Sora, it looked just a little bit different today. Something about that made him unseasy.
After this... what's going to happen to us?
I want to see other worlds, he thought.
There was the sea, always so calm, though storms came once in a while. There were the beautiful sandy beaches. There were birds on the hills and even mushrooms to eat, and... Riku and Kairi, Tidus and Selphie and Wakka. Mom and Dad and the other people in town. All the wonderful friends he had fun with here on Destiny Islands. But the landscape that Sora saw was always the same. If he could just see a different world... maybe something would change.
So he wanted to try going somewhere else.
"So, suppose you get to another world. What would you do there?" Kairi asked Riku a little nervously. "Do you just want to see, like Sora?"
"It's just... I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?" Riku paused for a moment, as if listening to the waves, and then went on. "And suppose there are other worlds... Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater." Then he turned to Sora and Kairi. "So we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"
A little piece of something greater. This was pretty complicated. Not quite following, Sora flopped over on the raft. "I don't know."
Riku looked at him with a little sigh and started walking down toward the shore. "Exactly. That's why we need to go out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing."
Sora turned to the sea, his eye following on Riku.
"It's the same old stuff. So let's go."
"You've been thinking a lot lately, haven't you?" Kairi said softly.
"Thanks to you. If you hadn't come here, I probably would've never thought of any of this." Riku turned away from the setting sun to look at her. "Kairi, thanks."
Those word sounded more earnest to Sora than anything he had ever heard. He felt his heart skip a beat.
"Heh, you're welcome," Kairi said with a shy laugh, turning to the sea again.
"Well... Guess I better get going. You two shouldn't stay out to late, either." Riku took off for the pier at a brisk pace, as if suddenly embarrassed by what he'd said.
Staring after him, Kairi said in a tiny voice, "You know, Riku has changed."
"What do you mean?" said Sora. If there was anything different about Riku, he couldn't tell. It seemed like the usual Riku to him.
"Well... Hmm. You don't think so?"
"Nope, it's just you."
Kairi looked a little sad at that. But then she blurted, "Sora, let's take the raft and go—just the two of us!"
She peered at Sora with a mischievous grin.
"Huh? What's gotten into you? You're the one that's changed, Kairi."
"Maybe..."
She started ambling down the to the beach. Something small and bright fell out of her pocket.
"Kairi, you dropped something."
"Oh—" She carefully picked it up and showed it to him. It was a pendant made of seashells, tied together into the shape of a star.
"What is it?"
"I'm making thalassa shell charms. In the old days, sailors always wore them. They're supposed to ensure a safe voyage."
"A sailor's charm huh..."
Sora gazed at the charm in the palm of Kairi's hand.
"I'm making them so even if one of us gets lost, we'll make it back here safe and sound. ...So the three of us will always be together."
She placed it gently back in her pocket. The sun had already fallen halfway below the horizon.
"You know, I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready." Kairi looked at Sora, speaking like she'd made up her mind. "No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here."
He ran to catch up with her. "Yeah, of course!"
I still want to come back to Destiny Island, too, he thought. I want to see other worlds, but I'll come back. To the sea and the sky and everyone here. To this place with Kairi and Riku.
"That's good... Sora, don't ever change"
"Huh?"
Kairi smiled at his startled sound. "I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."
"Yeah... We'll make it, for sure."
The sun was nearly gone now. The waves went on and on with their calm, soft rush.
A synthetic Westminster chime rang out.
Azabu (Ah-ZAH-boo) High School stood tall as a small trickle of rain poured across the Juuban (JOO-bahn) district. Students were walking home from school after classes had ended for the day. Among them were a group of four girls joining up with a fifth wearing a different uniform, all tucked beneath their umbrellas. As this was still their first year in high school, the girls' first order of business was a doozy for one of them.
"What!?"
A blonde girl with twintails shouted out loud with her eyes sinking back and jaw dropping.
"What do you mean we have to study!?"
A slightly taller girl with shorter blue hair chimed in. "It's just as we have been doing on and off over summer, Usagi. We all have futures ahead of us and high school is a big factor in that."
The girl in the different uniform spoke up. "Ami's right, Usagi. We need to take care of whatever our curriculums throw at us if we are to achieve our dreams!" The black-haired girl spoke with a bit of a puff in her chest, as if she was saying this as a speech to a king.
A second blonde, roughly the same height as the one called Usagi joined in. "They're both right. We had a lot of ups and downs before we got here. I even had the time to audition to become an idol."
The tall brunette inserted herself into the conversation. "Well, if I am to find a new boyfriend, I have a lot of home ec to take care of."
A pair of cats decided to join in, one black and one white. This would be a normal sight to anyone, but to these girls, they were beyond normal. The cats were soon followed by a small elementary schoolgirl. She looked like a smaller version of Usagi, but with pink hair and cone-shaped odango (oh-DONG-oh) compared to her bun-shaped odango. The small girl must have been listening in on the conversation as she made her presence known by giggling. She also had a kitten with her, a small gray one.
"Chibiusa!" shouted Usagi.
Chibiusa giggled again. "You should know better Usagi. Seeing as you will become my mother in the 30th Century."
She was right. Chibiusa was in fact Usagi's daughter from a thousand years into the future, in a time when Tokyo had become a crystalline utopia. Chibiusa's reminder was about how despite everything, the Usagi of the future was not as literate as one would expect, with her handwriting still looking sloppy. Usually in these times, Usagi would turn to help from a number of people, notably her old friend Gurio Umino (Goo-ree-oh Ooh-MEE-no), one of the smartest people at Juuban Middle School, her best friend Naru Osaka who was also Umino's girlfriend, or even her beloved Mamoru Chiba (MAH-moe-roo CHEE-bah), her husband in that same future.
"I feel like we should study at Mamoru's," suggested Usagi. "He might be able to help us all out."
One of the cats, the black one, spoke up in a female voice. "That's an unusually smart decision for you Usagi."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Luna."
The white one spoke next in a male voice. "But she is right, Usagi. Normally, it would be either Ami or Rei who would be suggesting that idea."
"Thank you for the compliment, Artemis," said the girl in the different uniform, Rei apparently.
The girls continued their way to an apartment complex resembling a castle and arrived at their destined floor. They knocked on the door to alert the occupant that they were coming in, and opened the door.
"Hi, Mamo-kun. It's us, just coming over to study..." Usagi started her sentence before trailing off when she sensed that something was off. Normally, Mamoru would be studying for his college work, but the apartment was just empty. There was a note on the coffee table.
Usa-ko
I'm sorry that I vanished without letting you know, but there is a storm on the horizon, and there is no time to lose. I'd better leave right away.
The stars have been starting to vanish, one-by-one, and that means that disaster can't be far behind.
I hate to leave you and your friends, but I have to look into this.
As the future king of Crystal Tokyo, I ask you, Chibiusa, and your fellow Sailor Guardians to do something.
There's someone out there with a "key"—the key to our survival. So I need you to find him and stick together. Do you understand?
We need the key, or we're doomed.
Head to Traverse Town and find a man called Leon. He'll point you in the right direction.
P.S. Please let Haruka, Michiru, Hotaru, and Setsuna know of my absence
This was the note he left behind. A very important letter from one of their closest allies—and their very dear friend. If this was all true, things were serious. A strange problem with the stars vanishing from the night sky and the disaster on the way. Did this mean that Mamoru was about to take a demonic bull by the gnarled horns?
Usagi began to freak out. But then again, she knew that there was someone who would be able to help with the situation. They just simply needed to take a bus to an otherwise remote cottage outside of Tokyo. But it would have to wait until the morning. It wasn't a school night anyway.
By the morn, the girls had all headed onto the bus to the cottage, where they met up with the three former students of Mugen Academy; Setsuna Meiou, Haruka Tenou, and Michiru Kaiou, alongside the young Hotaru Tomoe, ever delighted to see Chibiusa.
"So, bunhead," said Haruka. "What brings you out here?"
Usagi started to stammer. "We-we've got a big problem!"
"Like how big?"
A wind-chime jingled. The ten girls were in the dining room of the cottage, deep in serious conversation.
"...That's how it is," said Luna after explaining to the three.
"It is as I feared," Setsuna worried. "But we must trust our future king."
"I hope he's alright," said Hotaru.
Usagi spoke with determination. "Whatever the matter is, we'll find Mamo-kun and this 'key'."
Michiru gave a slight chuckle. "Well it's best if we split up into three groups." Haruka nodded to her partner's suggestion. "After all, I've felt two similar presences. Maybe there's two of these 'keys'."
"Hotaru, the cats, and I will serve as your reconnaissance," Setsuna said with a bow. "If it is what I believe it is from my service in Crystal Tokyo, then it is best that I explain: Mamoru has left this world in order to prevent the destruction of other worlds."
The other nine girls looked at Setsuna with confusion. "What other worlds?"
Setsuna shook her head. "I was previously forbidden from telling you this from Queen Serenity, but our world is not the only world in existence."
There was that name again for them all: Queen Serenity, the ruler of the Silver Millennium of ancient times and queen of the Moon Kingdom. Through her, she gave birth to a young princess who was doomed to never become queen by a jealous sorceress, with her kingdom being brought down by an equally jealous woman from the Earth Kingdom. It was also through her that a special power would awaken within the girls: the ability to transform into Sailor Guardians through the Silver Millennium's holy artifact, the Legendary Silver Crystal.
Setsuna drew up a diagram on a piece of paper to explain. "Let's say that this crescent is our world. And let's say that this heart is a different one altogether. In that world, we do not exist. Do you understand so far?" Everyone nodded. "Good. Now let's say that we multiplied this tenfold. Mamoru is traveling this multitude of worlds to find the 'key' and save all of existence."
"But how is he doing that?" asked Usagi.
"When the Queen told me this information, she also told me of the existence of an ancient technology called 'Gummi'. While it sounds like it would be some sort of candy, that is the only connection they have; the name. Gummi refers to a sort of shard made from pieces of a world's barrier whenever someone enters and exits that world. It is likely that Mamoru is using one such piece of Gummi to travel between worlds. The Queen had also told me that these Gummi blocks were also used to assemble the Ark that you, Minako, had once used in the Silver Millennium and later during your quest in Turkey."
"You mean we have to go all the way back to Istanbul to get it!?" Minako was the one to panic this time.
"No," answered Setsuna. "I have taken the liberty of having it stored away near where Dr. Tomoe's laboratory was once located"
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"So does this really mean that we can visit other worlds?" asked Diana, the small gray kitten.
"Outside of Juuban, you mustn't let anyone know that you come from another world," Setsuna warned them firmly.
"What do you mean?"
"Those who travel between worlds are advised to avoid meddling in the affairs of other worlds and informing their inhabitants of the existence of other worlds. Doing so will likely lead to another calamity across the known multiverse." Setsuna drew a featureless but evil grinning face on the diagram.
"In certain cases, your disguise pens will allow you to alter your appearances to avoid standing out in certain worlds. This is in order to..."
"..maintain the world border?" asked Usagi.
"Close, but I will give you that, Princess Serenity." Setsuna referred to Usagi by the name that the Queen had given her in her past life.
"But why were you and Queen Serenity the only ones who knew of other worlds?" asked Luna.
Setsuna answered again. "It was a closely guarded secret between the two of us. The Door of Space and Time can not only be used as a way to travel through time or cross distances on the physical plane, but it can also reach into other worlds. I once saw a parallel world from ours where Princess Serenity took the role of the Messiah of Silence."
There was an understood cold shudder among the collective. Setsuna was also looking at Chibiusa and Hotaru when she said this.
"Does that mean...?" asked the pink-haired girl.
"I am sorry, Small Lady. I was unable to confirm if you were in that same world."
A silence broke through the collective. That was one universe they were glad to have avoided.
"So," breathed Haruka. "It looks like we'll have to head back to school."
"And in this case, I will be signing a leave of absence to Azabu High and the TA Academy for you all."
Ami slightly frowned. She was looking forward to the new school year. But if the worlds were at stake, that would be a necessary sacrifice.
After a brief write-up to the respective schools, Setsuna and Haruka drove the group to the old laboratory just a little away from Mugen Academy. Heading down into the depths brought back unpleasant memories for them all, especially for Hotaru.
After a long descent down the lab, they soon came upon the Ark. This was to be their vessel for traveling between worlds, their Gummi Ship. The group boarded the ship and began to start it up. The engine started with a bomf! and the ship shook.
"Blast off!" Minako pointed forward as a track appeared before them. The ship zoomed forward and sped into the stars
Lightning flashed, and in nearly the same, moment, rain came pattering down on the roof.
"...Rain?"
Sora sat up and looked out the window. His house was on a bigger island, a little ways off from the small one where he and his friends always went to play. A little house in a little town—that was where he lived. Since he came home, he'd been spacing out, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about what happened today and what was going to happen soon.
The rain started to come down harder. Showers after sunset weren't that rare here. The ocean here was usually calm, but once in a while, there would be downpours or storms.
Still...
Lightning flashed again. Sora could tell...
"It's coming from our island!"
He jumped out of bed.
Sora took his kid-sized rowboat and hurried to their island. There was a nice big reef surrounding it, so anything less than a hurricane wouldn't cause much damage. But at the moment, there was a small raft to worry about
If the raft got swept away...
Luckily the waves weren't very high yet. The raft should be okay if he just tied it good and tight to a cocoyum tree.
Rolling thunder enveloped the island. Sora looked up at the starless night sky to see a ball of darkly glowing energy floating in the air. "What's that?!"
When he climbed up onto the dock, he saw that there were two other small boats.
"Riku's boat. And Kairi's!"
He ran in from the dock to the beach, but some kind of shadow rose up from the ground, blocking his path.
"...What's going on?!"
He swung his wooden sword around, and it felt like he hit something, but the shadow didn't go away. In fact, more and more of them appeared.
"Ugh, they just keep coming..." Sora gave up trying to beat them and rand along the beach, looking for Kairi and Riku. The wind swallowed up his voice as he shouted their names. At the waterfall, he paused and looked around. Then he saw it—in front of the bushes that hid the path to their secret spot, there was a big white door.
"What...?"
Suddenly he remembered the strange man he'd met in the afternoon.
Soon to be completely eclipsed—
No way, Sora thought. But he was definitely saying something like that... Anyway, I have to find Riku and Kairi.
Holding the shadowy things at bay with his wooden sword, Sora looked around again.
"Riku!"
He could see Riku standing in the darkness, facing the sea, his silver hair whipping in the howling wind.
Sora ran to him. "Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!"
Riku slowly turned. "The door has opened..."
"What?"
Something wasn't quite right about him. He was different. And what was this about a door? Didi he mean that white door? Or...
"The door has opened, Sora! Now we can go to the outside world!" Riku said in a rush, a strange excitement in his eyes.
"What are you talking about? We've gotta find Kairi!"
"Kairi's coming with us!" Riku shouted at the top of his voice. "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
As he went on, eeroe dark energy gathered above his head.
"Riku..."
"Let's go, Sora!"
Smiling, Riku stretched out his hand, but at his feet the darkness swarmed and grew, twisting itself around his legs—and in the blink of an eye, it had covered him completely.
"Riku!"
Sora tried to run toward him, but when he stepped into that darkness, it began twining up his body, too.
Smiling in the midst of the darkness, Riku called his name. "...Sora..."
But Sora couldn't reach him. Riku was engulfed in darkness, and just as Sora was about to be swallowed up, too, a shining light shone from inside it and drove it away.
For a moment Sora had to shut his eyes against the brightness. When he opened them up again, there was a giant shining key in his hand. A voice echoed in his head—
Keyblade...
As if on cue, the dark, shadowy things came up from the ground again. Sora swung the key—the Keyblade—at them, and this time they disappeared.
"...Riku?" With the Keyblade still firmly in his hand, Sora looked around, but couldn't see Riku anywhere. "Riku! Where are you? Riku!"
Sora ran, swinging the Keyblade as he searched. No matter how many of the shadowy things he defeated, more kept springing up. Finally he was in front of the white door again.
"...Huh?"
The door was opening, almost as if to invite him inside. This was the only place left on the island where Kairi and Riku could be. Sora ran through the door.
"Riku... Kairi!"
There was the cave—their secret spot, just the same as ever. The only difference was that glowing door at the end. And in front of the door, Kairi stood silently starting at it.
"Kairi!" Sora dashed toward her.
She turned to look at him, slowly and sadly. "Sora..."
The moment she reached out for him, the door began to open. Ink-black darkness erupted ou, blowing her toward him like the blast from an explosion. He tried to catch her in his arms—but her body just faded out. She passed through him and vanished.
It was like she;d been sucked into Sora himself. He called her name, but with a huge rush, Sora and the door to the island were all hurled away in the wind.
"What's happening—?!"
Thrown out onto the sand, Sora pounded the ground with his fist. Inches away, the ground just dropped off, like a cliff. He looked up and saw that dark sphere covering the entire island. And a huge black shadow was standing right in front of him.
This isn't our Destiny Island anymore, he thought
Riku isn't here. Kairi's gone, too.
So how am I still here?
Sora was still on his hands and knees. The huge shadow swiped at him, knocking him aside.
He ground, and the Keyblade glowed in his hand.
"Power sleeps within you... If you give it form... It will give you strength."
I feel like someone's speaking to me. Power sleeping within me...? I don't have any power. I can only just barely beat Riku. So how...
"No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here."
But Kairi disappeared. Riku, too. And now even the island's about to disappear3 Can we really ever come back here? All three of us?
"Make it so the three of you can always be together."
Sora thought of Kairi's smile. Kairi and Riku and me. So we'll always be together So we can come back here.
The Keyblade shone brightly, like it was reacting to Sora's emotions. There's no way I'm gonna lose. So I can go see other worlds, so the three of us can run on the beach together...
He stood up and took a huge leap, and his attack became trails of light that wounded the shadow.
"Yaaaaah! I won't lose!"
Two, three blows from the Keyblade he wielded, and wounds made of light kept appearing on the giant shadow.
"You're not gonna beat me!"
Sora felt the Keyblade pierce something, and the shadow let out and enormous roar.
"...I did it..."
Bellowing in fury, the shadow was sucked into the dark sphere up above.
"Kairi...," Sora whispered. Before he could take another breath, the sphere raged and howled, swelling up and dragging what remained of the island into it, along with Sora. With a terrible rumbling, it swallowed up the cocoyum trees, the rowboats, even the sea...
Sora strained to hold on to the wreckage of the wooden bridge, but the huge force pulled him off. In a swirl of debris, he fell into the dark sphere and disappeared.
À suivre
(music cue: Heart Moving)
In my dreams, we were together
Protected by the stars
I didn’t worry when we were friends
We talked casually, although
There was a moment when I only worried about you
I want to be more pretty, right now
When I fall in love, something changes
I close my eyes, and make sure of it
I hugged you, and my hard pounded
I want to tell you about this feeling
On the road home, in front of everyone
Since I didn’t want to say goodbye
I waved my hand happily, as much as I could
I want to show you a more wondrous me
In my dreams, we were together
We were closer than anyone
I give to the you of before
Now I want to give you my love
Tomorrow is a wonderful thing, yet
I feel like it’s the beginning
When I fall in love, something changes
I close my eyes, and make sure of it
I hugged you, and my hard pounded
I want to tell you about this feeling
Protected by the stars
I didn’t worry when we were friends
We talked casually, although
There was a moment when I only worried about you
I want to be more pretty, right now
When I fall in love, something changes
I close my eyes, and make sure of it
I hugged you, and my hard pounded
I want to tell you about this feeling
On the road home, in front of everyone
Since I didn’t want to say goodbye
I waved my hand happily, as much as I could
I want to show you a more wondrous me
In my dreams, we were together
We were closer than anyone
I give to the you of before
Now I want to give you my love
Tomorrow is a wonderful thing, yet
I feel like it’s the beginning
When I fall in love, something changes
I close my eyes, and make sure of it
I hugged you, and my hard pounded
I want to tell you about this feeling
(music cue: Sailor Moon Preview Music)
Next time on Kingdom Hearts:
Sora awakens in a new place, separated from his friends. The Sailor Guardians begin their search for the Key and for Mamoru. When fate brings them together, Sora, Usagi, and the Guardians set out on a grand adventure to find their friends!
Next time: Traverse Town: Encounter
The moonlight is a messenger of love!
Yes as you can tell, I have in mind the use of Sailor Moon to replace Mickey and the gang as hre story is more or less the gateway drug to anime in general especially back in the 90s when it was dubbed by DiC. As you can also tell, I am using the Viz Media cast for Sailor Moon as the new dub of the classic series is closest to the original Japanese
As for how the Sailor Guardians look overall, at least casually:
They are in their uniforms as seen in the Eternal and Cosmos films, as I am making this a sort of blend between the continuity of the 90's anime and the manga, acting as a broad strokes.
And for anyone wondering what was that whole bit with Princess Serenity as Messiah of Silence, it's a reference to the live action Tokusatsu series "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" where Princess Serenity was responsible for bringing about the end of the Silver Millenium; Chibiusa and Hotaru's concern has to do with the fact that neither of them, plus the three Outer Guardians were present in that series, with Luna filling in for Chibiusa as the sixth Sailor Guardian.
As for the Ark that Setsuna mentions, it is originally from the SNES RPG Sailor Moon -another story- where it serves as the game's equivalent to Final Fantasy's airships, allowing players to jump from Canada, to Switzerland, to Lhasa, to Turkey, to Tokyo, to the North Pole, and the Moon. It will be filling in for the Highwind in this saga, hence why I have Sora's default name for the raft be the one used instead of the canon name of Highwind.
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