Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days

by Tomoco Kanemaki

  “I’m not Riku. I’m a fake. I can’t remember why I was created or where or when… All that’s inside of me is memories of you and Naminé.” He shook his head. “But I know they aren’t real.”

  “Say, Naminé, can’t you use your magic to get Riku’s memory back to normal?” Goofy wondered.

  Naminé miserably shook her head, too.

  “It’s all right,” said the Replica. “I’ll deal.”

  He started walking away, leaving behind Sora and his friends. He had no idea where to go. But he didn’t want to be here.

  “Wait!” cried Sora.

  The Replica paused.

  “Who cares if someone else made you?” Sora protested, well-meaning to the end. “You’re you and nobody else. You have your own heart inside of you. Those feelings and memories are yours and yours alone. They’re special!”

  Mine and mine alone…? the Replica thought. I’m a puppet. How could I feel anything? I don’t have a heart.

  “You’re a good guy, Sora. I don’t have to be the real Riku to see how real your feelings are. That’s enough for me.”

  “Riku!”

  Sora was calling after him at the top of his lungs, but the Replica didn’t say anything more. He fled from their kindness at a run.

  Roxas had been asleep for ten days.

  Xion woke up a little at a time, blinking and stretching. She changed into a clean cloak and stuffed the dirty one into a hamper in the corner. Before long, it would turn back into a clean one, dangling on a hanger.

  Their underlings, the Dusks, did all the cleaning. She was sure they took care of the laundry and changed the sheets, too.

  Xion washed her face and looked in the mirror. Nothing out of the ordinary about her reflection. I’m the same as ever.

  Then she left her room and headed for the lobby. Depending on when she showed up, she would run into some of her coworkers and miss others. Today she found no one there except Saïx and Xigbar.

  “You’ll continue investigating with Xigbar,” said Saïx.

  The moment she had her orders, her partner for the mission called out, “Let’s get going, Poppet.”

  It sounded like he’d been waiting.

  Strange, though—Xion was usually sent on missions alone now. This was the first time she’d been assigned to go with anyone other than Roxas.

  She wanted to go to Destiny Island again and collect seashells. Even when she was sent to a different world, she would stop there on the way back and pick up one. The stunning sunsets on that tiny island reminded her of the view from the clock tower in Twilight Town.

  She wasn’t quite sure what compelled her to bring Roxas seashells. It just felt like she had to.

  You can make a lucky charm out of seashells. An amulet so that even if people get separated, they can always find one another again…

  Although she couldn’t think of where or when she might have learned about seashell charms.

  Nobodies aren’t supposed to exist. Beyond that, she knew very little about herself.

  But some things she knew even though she couldn’t remember learning them. Like how to fight and use magic.

  Of course, she was also learning plenty from the others, too—yet, she still got the feeling she already knew anyway.

  Is that what memories are? What does it mean to have memories?

  When Roxas woke up, she would ask him about it. He was the only one she could talk to when it came to topics like this.

  She gathered the courage to ask, “How is Roxas?”

  “Still asleep,” replied Saïx. “He may never wake.”

  Xion dropped her gaze. What could she say to that?

  “Haven’t you been checking in on him every day?” Xigbar inquired. “That’s sweet of you, Poppet.”

  Startled, she looked up at him. She hadn’t expected to hear that from him.

  “You may as well keep visiting him,” Saïx added. “There’s still a chance he might awaken.”

  His response struck her as odd, too. Saïx had never said anything to her that had betrayed the faintest hint of approval.

  “Now get to work,” he prompted.

  “…All right.” Xion stepped into the dark portal that Xigbar had just opened.

  When they exited the corridors, they were met by a wide blue ocean spread.

  Riku stood on the warm sand. But the sand wasn’t real—this was Castle Oblivion, not the real Destiny Island.

  A world made from my memories…of the home I left behind.

  He ran up the beach, past the dock, to where he saw someone familiar. “Hey, Kairi. Are you…?”

  But as he spoke, Kairi disappeared. And in her place was Zexion.

  “Surely you knew this would happen.” Zexion spoke quietly, as if the illusion of surf was hardly enough to drown out his voice. “You’ve been to a number of worlds in your memory before this one. And in those worlds, you met only dark beings. That’s all that is left in your heart—dark memories. Your memories of home are gone.”

  “That’s not true!” cried Riku. “I remember everyone from the islands! Tidus and Selphie and Wakka! And Kairi and Sora, too! They’re my…” He looked down, clenching his fists. “My…best friends…”

  “And who cast aside those friends? Have you forgotten what you yourself have done? You destroyed your home!”

  With Zexion’s condemnation came a shroud of darkness, and thunder split the sky. Rain beat down on Riku, soaking him through.

  Unable to follow the Replica, Sora was back at Naminé’s side.

  “So Riku left, huh…?” Goofy said.

  “Yeah.” Dejected, Sora nodded, looking at Naminé meaningfully.

  Donald spoke up instead. “Can we get our memories back?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “Just because you can’t remember something doesn’t really mean that it’s gone.”

  “What d’ya mean?” asked Goofy, puzzled.

  “When you remember one thing, another memory comes back with it, and then another and another, right? Our memories are connected. All those pieces are linked together like they’re in a chain…and that’s what keeps our hearts together. I don’t really erase any memories—I just take apart the links and rearrange them. So you still have all your memories.”

  Jiminy Cricket popped up from Sora’s pocket. “Then you can put ’em back together?”

  “I can… But first, I have to take apart the chains of the memories that I made,” Naminé explained. “After that, I have to gather up the fragments of memories scattered across each of your hearts and reconnect them. It might take a while.” She lowered her eyes, burdened by the weight of what she’d done—but then a smile lit her face. “But I think it’ll work.”

  “Say, don’t you want to become the real thing?”

  The Replica had accepted Axel’s offer, and now they were headed down into the bowels of Castle Oblivion.

  Vexen had devised the scheme with the Replica, and Axel still didn’t entirely understand whether it had succeeded or failed. But he figured there would still be some use for the puppet.

  Given the right memories, the Replica could mimic the powers of the original. Which meant that if he were implanted with somebody else’s memories, he would, hypothetically, gain other powers. Somebody’s—or maybe even a Nobody’s.

  He had one particular Nobody in mind. All the members of the Organization were still influenced by the memories of their human lives.

  “Isn’t it about time he was getting back?” Axel wondered. The Replica had no response. “So do you have any idea how you absorb other people’s powers?”

  “…I devour their strength by defeating them. That’s what Vexen said.”

  “Devour, huh…?” That didn’t tell him anything about how it worked. But just then, the space in front of them warped.

  Right on cue, Zexion appeared—all but done in by Riku.

  “What…what is he?! No one’s ever taken in the darkness the way that he can! It’s absurd…!” Collapsing to all
fours, Zexion pounded his fists on the floor.

  Axel had never seen such an emotional display from him. Well, this was the first and last time.

  Finally, Zexion looked up and noticed the Replica. “Wh—? Riku?!” He shrank back in fear.

  “Hey there.” Axel stepped out from the shadows.

  “Oh… Oh yes. Vexen’s replica, of course,” Zexion said with palpable relief. “Perhaps we can use this Riku to defeat the real one… Axel?”

  The Replica stared down at him.

  “Hey, Riku…,” Axel began. “It must be rough, knowing you’re a fake. Wouldn’t you like to be real?”

  “Yes.” The Replica nodded.

  “Well, it’s simple. All you need is power that the real Riku doesn’t have,” Axel explained with a smirk. “If you get that, you can be a new person—not Riku or anybody else. You won’t just be a copy of someone. You’ll be your own self.”

  “Axel! What are you telling him?!” Zexion tried to scurry away across the floor.

  “You know, he’s as good a place to start as any.” Axel gestured toward Zexion with his chin.

  “You can’t do this!”

  “So sorry, Zexion. I could help you, but…watching Sora and Riku have it out is just so much fun.”

  “No… Stay back!” Zexion pleaded, desperately edging away, and the Replica brought down his sword.

  Zexion could end Sora’s—or rather, Roxas’s—continued existence, not to mention he was in the way of Axel’s shared objectives. And he had decided to do anything to accomplish what he set out to do.

  But it wasn’t only Zexion. Marluxia stood as another obstacle, and the Replica in front of him was no more than a pawn.

  Would the day come when he might have to choose between the Organization’s goals and this inexplicable thing he felt toward Roxas?

  “NO!”

  Zexion’s scream faded into nothing, swallowed up by the darkness.

  On the thirteenth floor of Castle Oblivion, Sora, Donald, and Goofy each went into a pod shaped like a white flower bud.

  The pods themselves were not memory-altering devices. Their only function was to keep their inhabitants asleep, and Naminé needed Sora and his friends asleep to link their memories back together.

  “All of this may have started with a lie, but…I really am glad that I got to meet you, Sora.”

  He turned, smiling at her. “Yeah. Me too. When I finally found you, and when I remembered your name…I was so happy. The way I felt wasn’t a lie.”

  Even if the memories were false, the emotions they stirred were real. But she had to remove the false memories.

  I have to erase myself from Sora’s memories. She smiled back at him. “Good-bye.” Yes, this is it. When you wake up, you won’t remember me.

  “No, not good-bye!” said Sora, determined. “When I wake up, I’ll find you. And then there won’t be any lies. We’re gonna be friends for real. Promise me, Naminé.”

  She had to shake her head. “You’re going to forget making that promise.”

  That was just how it went, when memories were rearranged.

  “But even if the chain of memories comes apart, the links will still be there, right?” he insisted. “So the memory of our promise will always be inside me somewhere. I just know it.”

  Naminé wanted to believe him.

  If anyone could remember her, Sora would—that much, she could believe.

  Something in her chest ached.

  “So…promise me?” He held out his pinkie finger.

  “Okay. I promise.” She linked his finger with her own. “Do you promise me?”

  “Yeah. Promise.”

  Sora stepped carefully into the pod.

  A promise… Even if he can’t remember it, the promise will still be real. I know it.

  He won’t forget.

  “Hey, Sora,” said Naminé, as he settled in the pod. “Some of your memories’ links are deep in the shadows of your heart, and I won’t be able to find all of them. But don’t worry… You made another promise to someone you could never replace.”

  The petal-like doors of the pod were closing.

  “She is your light. The light within the darkness. Remember her and all the memories lost in the shadows of your heart will come back,” she told him, smiling gently as he began to drift off. “Look at the good luck charm. I changed its shape when I changed your memory—but when you thought of her just once, it went back to the way it was.”

  Sora was already well on his way to dreamland. But still, Naminé kept talking to him.

  “See? Your memories are coming back. Don’t worry. You might forget about me…but we made a promise. So I can come back. One day, the promise we made will become the light that brings us together. Till then, I’ll be in your heart… Forgotten but not lost. Because memories are never really lost.”

  Sora slept—and he awakened.

  Xion took a single tiny shell from the sand. “There’s no one here today…”

  The beach was empty. All she could hear was the sound of the Destiny Island surf. The sun was sinking, turning the sea crimson.

  She looked toward the edge of the islet, where the girl had just been sitting the other day.

  “I wonder if she’s feeling better now,” she murmured.

  She had no way of knowing the girl would not be coming back.

  Chapter 6

  Reunion

  HE RECOGNIZED THE WHITE CEILING AND, SOON AFTER, HIS ROOM.

  Something was different about it—but he couldn’t have said what it was.

  This is my room. I’m a member of the Organization. Number 13, Roxas. But…something’s changed.

  Roxas sat up in the hard bed and shook his head. His mind felt so fogged over.

  Did I fall asleep yesterday? How?

  He couldn’t remember. He really had no idea.

  As he swung his legs over the side to get up, a pile of seashells beside his pillow caught his eye.

  Where did these come from? I don’t know. I don’t know anything at all.

  He left his room, and his legs seemed to know where to take him now that he was awake. Muscle memory was carrying him to the Grey Area.

  Right—I’m supposed to report in for my mission.

  Some kind of pressure was gathering between his eyebrows. He walked down the hallway, and when he arrived at the lobby, no one was there.

  “Axel…?” He murmured his friend’s name without thinking, then touched his mouth at the outburst.

  They had told him that Axel might have been terminated. He remembered that part.

  And being terminated meant there was nothing left, nothing at all, according to Xigbar.

  Where was that place—the world painted in the melancholy light of the setting sun?

  I can’t remember. I don’t know. What’s wrong with me?

  Beyond the glass walls of the lobby he could see the neon city lights against the deep dark sky. It was impossible to tell whether it was morning or night here.

  Roxas opened a portal to the Corridors of Darkness, heading for that place. If he went there…maybe he would find Axel. And Xion, too.

  He sat on the ledge atop the clock tower, gazing absently at the sunset.

  No one was here.

  They’re all gone…

  A train sped into the distance, and beyond that, the sun dipped below the horizon.

  “Roxas…?”

  He turned to find a black-haired girl standing there. “Xion… What happened to me?”

  “You were sleeping,” she replied. “A long, long time.”

  “Sleeping…?” Confused, Roxas narrowed his eyes. For a long time? That meant the previous day he remembered…wasn’t yesterday.

  “It was so long, Saïx told us not to get our hopes up. He said you might not…” Xion trailed off and sat down beside him. “Anyway, you’re awake now. That’s what matters.”

  She regarded him with a tilted head and a smile—mystified but glad.

  “I still f
eel all weird and hazy. That’s what I get for sleeping in, I guess.” He shook his head blearily.

  Xion giggled, and it was contagious. Roxas had to laugh, too.

  Once their chuckles died down, she rummaged in her pocket and took out something small and round. “Here, I brought you this.”

  It was a small seashell—just like the ones Roxas had found next to his pillow.

  “I’ve been picking one up every time I go out on a mission,” she told him.

  The shell weighed almost nothing in the palm of his hand, smooth and dry and somehow fragile. But why did it give him such a strange feeling…?

  “Hold it up to your ear,” said Xion.

  Roxas did, and he could hear something rushing within it, like an echo of the wind—no, the beach.

  When he closed his eyes, he could hear nothing but the sound of the waves.

  For some reason, it felt…familiar, perhaps. Like something he’d longed to hear after a long time away.

  But why would the sound of the waves be so familiar to him…?

  Was it a dream? Or something else? It felt like she had watched the sunset with the ocean in her ears before, alongside someone else.

  Just as she was now on the clock tower, listening to the sound of the waves in a seashell with Roxas.

  After that, Roxas returned to routine.

  He learned from Xion that he’d been asleep for twenty days. That made yesterday his fiftieth day with the Organization—today was his fifty-first.

  He woke up and went to the lobby, as the rules dictated.

  When he got there, he found Xigbar, Saïx, and Demyx. Xion had already left on her own mission.

  I’m glad I got to see her yesterday, he thought vaguely, remembering the empty shell, the sound of the waves…

  First, he went to stock up at the shop.

  “There was talk that you collapsed, kupo.” The Moogle looked a bit worried. “You need to pace yourself better, kupo.”

  “I’ve been pacing myself just fine.”

  “Kupo? Are you sure? Take care, will you? I’ve got some new wares in, kupo.”

  Amid the banter, Roxas bought himself plenty of items, then meandered over to Saïx.