Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days

by Tomoco Kanemaki

  “What do you mean? Just trying to help out a budding friendship.” Axel grinned, bright and innocent.

  “Hmm. Whatever you say.” The frustrated frown at Saïx’s mouth relaxed a bit. “It may work out to our advantage.”

  “…Now what do you mean?”

  “What did you think of Xion?”

  Saïx was doing that thing where he replied to questions with more questions. He’d never actually answer any at this rate.

  “Think of her? I mean…what you see’s what you get.” Axel had plenty of questions about Xion, however, and strongly suspected that it would be fruitless to ask.

  “Heh. What you see is indeed what you get,” Saïx said with a quiet, cryptic laugh. “It’s high time for you to get to work as well. You’ll be investigating a new world today.”

  “On it.” No sooner had Axel acknowledged the order than he walked into the Corridors of Darkness.

  Despite the name, the corridors were not completely dark—the light was thin and hazy, but it was there. Axel paused as Saïx’s words came back to him.

  “What you see is indeed what you get…”

  Saïx couldn’t have met Naminé, but he probably knew what she looked like from data files. One answer to the many riddles of Xion was as plain as the nose on her face.

  Their features were practically identical.

  Xion and Naminé were linked somehow. Actually, to guess from their looks, Xion and Naminé could be twin Nobodies. A pair of very special Nobodies, somehow born concurrently from the heart of a princess, with no darkness in it—Kairi’s heart.

  So you could see the answer right there.

  Maybe the connection between Sora and Kairi was also the connection between Roxas and Xion, which explained why Roxas was so invested in her before even seeing her face.

  And having them work together “may work out to our advantage” somehow, too, Axel thought, picking up his pace. But why am I so concerned about those two?

  Is it just the power of a Keyblade wielder?

  His mission with Xion was to explore the cave outside Agrabah. Their brush with mortal danger for the day came in the form of a collapsing cavern, and they only escaped in the nick of time.

  “Whew…,” Xion huffed. “I can’t believe we made it.”

  “Yeah. Me neither.”

  But just as Roxas said that, Xion pointed to something over his shoulder. “Eep! Roxas—behind you!”

  “Huh?”

  But when he turned around, it wasn’t a person he found there. Or a Heartless.

  The wiggling creature was…

  “A carpet?” As Roxas stared at it incredulously, the carpet curled itself around him, almost affectionately. “Wh…what’s happening?”

  “Roxas, are you all right?” Xion gingerly reached out to touch the carpet. It wasn’t doing any harm.

  “Uh… Yeah, fine. I guess it isn’t hostile…”

  “I think it likes you.” Xion giggled.

  “Okay, but…” Roxas was baffled. “Why?”

  “Good question!” another voice chimed in.

  “Ack!”

  This time the figure that appeared beside Roxas was a large, sturdy, and entirely blue man with a black beard, floating in the air with his arms crossed. And he had no legs—just a trailing wisp. Was he…a ghost?

  “Wh-who are you?!” cried Xion.

  The mysterious man swished himself over to her, leaning toward her face. “Who am I? You want to know who I am?!”

  “Um…yes?” Xion faltered.

  “Well, here we go!” he said, grinning broadly. “One personal introduction, coming right up! It’s Genie formerly of the lamp—but call me by my first name, kids! And you’re already acquainted with my pal the magic carpet! Good to meetcha!”

  The Genie shook Roxas’s hand with slightly too much emphasis on the shaking.

  “Uh, likewise,” Roxas mumbled, uncertain how to respond to such an enthusiastic introduction.

  “Aw, come on now! You can do better than that! Why so glum anyway? Feeling a little blue? Believe me, I can relate.”

  “I bet…” Roxas edged away.

  “So who are you kids anyway?”

  “Um, well… About that…” They weren’t supposed to tell anyone in the worlds they visited what they really were.

  But while Roxas hesitated, the Genie bulldozed ahead and saved them from the dilemma.

  “Now me—I was just swinging by to check in on my favorite city when all of a sudden, carpet here put the tassel to the metal and took off! Says he spotted a friend.”

  “A friend? That friend was…me?”

  “I know! Crazy, isn’t it? But I have no idea who in the cosmos you are. Either of ya!” The Genie flung out his hands in a helpless gesture. “You sure this is a friend of yours, Rugman?”

  The carpet seemed to nod its upper half—or at least, the end that was currently up—in an affirmative.

  “Your city… Do you mean Agrabah, right over there through the desert?” Roxas asked the Genie.

  “That’s the one!” The Genie nodded and spiraled in the air as if to dance. “My buddy Al’s hometown. Me and Al, we’re inseparable.”

  “Oh…,” Roxas murmured. He hadn’t heard anyone use a word like that before about people.

  “Anyway, matter of fact, carpet and me were on a well-deserved vacation. A little world tour, if you will. But then I got to worrying about how Al was doing…” A gloomy note crept into Genie’s outlandishly ebullient voice. “So we figured we’d pop back in to check on him.”

  “Why were you worried? Is there something to worry about?”

  The Genie pulled a white handkerchief out of nowhere and dabbed at his eyes. “Well, sure! It’s only natural to worry about your friends. I worried about how it’s going with Jasmine, how the city is doing…and once I get something in my head, I can’t get it back out. Tried everything—chainsaws, sledgehammers, tweezers…”

  “We don’t know anybody named Al,” said Xion. “But the city’s in rough shape…”

  “Yeah. People are saying they keep getting hit by sandstorms,” Roxas added.

  “What?!” The Genie shot up like a rocket. “Why do these things always happen the minute I leave town! All right, stand back. A little magic and I’ll have the place whipped back into shape…”

  He waggled his hands, preparing for a flashy move.

  “But…Aladdin said this isn’t a job for magic,” said Roxas, recalling the conversation he and Axel had overheard. “He said the people of Agrabah should be the ones to take care of it.”

  “Aladdin? Al said that…?” The Genie’s face went slack with disappointment. “Well, guess that’s that, then…”

  “You’re not going to help at all?” Roxas tried to urge him.

  “Al said no magic, right? I’d love to fix it right up, but even a genie’s got to respect his friend’s decisions.”

  “Huh…” Roxas had to ponder that. Did the Genie mean that even if you thought you could help out a friend, it was more important to listen to what they wanted?

  He was staring absently at the Genie when he felt a poke in the back. Xion whispered in his ear from behind him. “Roxas, I think we should go.”

  “Yeah… I guess.” Roxas nodded, as the Genie launched himself into the sky again.

  “Still, he shouldn’t mind a teensy-weensy speck of help!” The Genie fired a bolt of magic from his fingertip and the sandstorm looming on the desert horizon settled into stillness. “Bam! Now the city’s safe. And we can get back to who you two…are…?”

  The Genie turned back to interrogate the strange pair—but they were gone.

  “Hey. Mission go okay?”

  Atop the clock tower in Twilight Town, Roxas and Xion both looked up from their ice cream.

  “Yeah,” Xion replied. “I think it’s gonna work… Thanks, guys. You’re the best.”

  “We try.” Axel took a seat beside them in his usual perch and bit into his own bar. He savored it in silence
for a bit before asking, “So where’d they end up sending you today?”

  “That place where you and I went once, um…,” Roxas began.

  “Agrabah,” Xion supplied.

  “Oh yeah, that city in the desert,” said Axel, and then the conversation paused again for the sake of ice cream. They heard a long train whistle in the distance.

  “That Genie we met seemed really worried about his friend Al,” Xion remarked eventually. “But then he said he’d respect his friend’s decisions. I guess you can’t just jump in and do everything for them, even if you want to.”

  Idly swinging her legs, she took another bite.

  “Yeah. People need their space.” Axel cocked his head in thought. He must have heard that somewhere, a long time ago, back when he was human.

  Roxas peered at him curiously. “So then why did the Genie say he and Al were ‘inseparable’?”

  “It’s not like they’re actually joined at the hip. What’s it mean?” Xion was staring at Axel, too, as if he had all the answers.

  “Well, I think you can be inseparable, even if you’re apart,” said Axel.

  Roxas and Xion shared a look.

  “…Even if you’re apart,” Roxas murmured.

  They trailed off, and this time Axel finished his ice cream. So he started talking again. “It’s like, if you feel really close to each other. Like best friends.”

  “Is that different?” Roxas still had questions. “What’s it like having a best friend?”

  Stumped by that one, Axel turned to the sunset.

  Even if Nobodies could go around playacting friendship, Axel felt like pretending to be best friends was something else altogether. It just wasn’t in them. And he didn’t have a better answer.

  He squinted in the blazing glow and finally said, “Couldn’t tell you. I haven’t got one.”

  “Oh…” Roxas looked away. Xion said nothing at all.

  The last of the slanting red light shone on their faces.

  THE TIME HAS COME…

  At long last, the great gathering of hearts is revealed to us.

  Hearts full of rage, of hate…of sadness and bliss…

  Shining down upon us is the heart of all hearts—Kingdom Hearts.

  There, in the sky, hangs the promise of a new world.

  My comrades! Let us remember why we are here, an Organization of Nobodies, and what we hope to achieve.

  We will gain still more power; we will conquer hearts and make them our own. Hearts shall never again have power over us.

  Go to the Beach

  BEFORE THEIR MISSIONS, THEY WERE CALLED TO A PLACE NONE OF THEM HAD SEEN BEFORE—a great balcony so high it seemed to be floating in space, where the breeze was cool on their cheeks.

  In the center stood Xemnas.

  Xion arrived fraught with nerves, afraid that the summons meant Saïx had discovered that she couldn’t use the Keyblade, but this was clearly some other matter.

  And she was not the only one to receive the summons. Everyone clustered around Xemnas.

  “The time has come… At long last the great gathering of hearts is revealed to us,” he intoned, opening his arms wide beneath the empty black sky.

  But something was rising… A heart-shaped moon…?

  Is that…Kingdom Hearts?

  “Hearts full of rage, of hate…of sadness and bliss,” Xemnas went on. “Shining down upon us is the heart of all hearts—Kingdom Hearts. There in the sky hangs the promise of a new world.”

  It felt as if the light from that moon fell on her alone, Xion thought.

  “My comrades! Let us remember why we are here, an Organization of Nobodies, and what we hope to achieve. We will gain still more power; we will conquer hearts and make them our own. Hearts shall never again have power over us.”

  The speech was a little beyond Xion’s comprehension. To conquer hearts? Make them their own? Never let hearts have power over them? What was all that supposed to mean?

  And yet, the glow of Kingdom Hearts above them was so beautiful, she felt it hardly mattered what Xemnas was trying to say.

  Hearts…a great collection of hearts.

  If I had one…

  Xion gazed silently up at the heart-shaped moon.

  Chapter 1

  Your Keyblade

  AFTER XEMNAS’S PROCLAMATION, NOTHING CHANGED—except that now, through the glass walls of the lobby, they could see Kingdom Hearts.

  Drawn toward the glass, Xion stared up at the heart-shaped moon in the starless sky. It gave her such a strange feeling, a prickly unease in her chest.

  So that’s what it looks like, all the hearts that Roxas and I collected…

  “I’ve paired you with Roxas again today,” said Saïx, suddenly beside her. “The mission is in Agrabah. He has the details.”

  Xion hesitated a moment before replying, “Thank you.”

  But Saïx barely glanced at her before returning to his usual post in the middle of the room. She never could tell what he might be thinking. This was better than being entirely ignored, though, and at least he was letting her work with Roxas.

  The Keyblade still wouldn’t come to her. Maybe she’d never be able to use it again. And if so…what could she do?

  Xion was gazing at Kingdom Hearts again, bright in the black sky, when someone else spoke to her.

  This time it was Roxas. “Morning, Xion.”

  “Hi, Roxas. Time to get to work?”

  “Yeah.”

  When she talked to Roxas, the uneasiness in her chest seemed to die down a little.

  “What’s the mission today?” she asked.

  “Taking down Heartless in Agrabah,” said Roxas. “Let’s go get it over with.”

  “Right.”

  They headed into the Corridors of Darkness.

  Once they finished the mission, Xion and Roxas went to their usual spot—the Twilight Town clock tower. Someone was waiting there for them.

  “Hey, Axel, you’re early,” said Roxas.

  “No, I’m not.” Axel turned, flashing them a grin. “You two are late.”

  Xion and Roxas sat beside him.

  “So another successful day?” asked Axel.

  “You know it,” Roxas bragged. “Where’d you go today, Axel?”

  “The Beast’s castle. They had me doing recon in the doom and gloom. What about you?”

  “Heart collection in Agrabah, the usual.”

  As Roxas and Axel chatted away, Xion stared vacantly at the ice cream bar in her hand. For some reason, her anxiety was only growing.

  It was Axel who noticed, peering at her downcast face. “What’s up, Xion?”

  “I just…don’t know how long we can fool the other members,” she said finally. “They’re going to figure out I can’t use the Keyblade…”

  “Relax. We’ll be fine,” Roxas encouraged, but she didn’t look up.

  Sensing her anxiety, Axel turned away. “I wouldn’t be so sure. They’re not that stupid.”

  I know, Xion thought. I knew it wouldn’t be so easy.

  “Do we just cross our fingers?” she mumbled.

  No one spoke for a few moments.

  Roxas broke the quiet. “Well, maybe we can’t hide it from Saïx and Xigbar forever… But, I mean, Demyx isn’t going to figure it out…”

  He said it with such a straight face that Xion burst out laughing. Not that it fixed anything, but he was probably right.

  “Whoa, Roxas. That’s harsh.” Axel side-eyed them, and Xion tried to contain her giggles. But he was holding in laughter, too.

  “I’m serious, though! All he ever does is lie around playing that sitar.”

  Roxas did seem to be entirely in earnest, which only made it funnier.

  “Aw, he’s not that bad. He’s got his own missions to—” Axel paused. “Does he? Huh. I actually have no idea what he does.”

  “I’ve seen him in the field just rocking out on his sitar,” said Xion.

  “Does it do anything?” Roxas was actually confu
sed.

  “He must be out there fighting Heartless and investigating worlds, just the same as us,” Axel scolded.

  “But I’ve heard him say fighting wasn’t his thing.” Roxas briefly pondered that and went on quietly, “I guess everyone in the Organization is good at different things.”

  That had to be true, Xion realized. They were all Nobodies, and yet, none of them were alike, not in appearance or personality.

  “Right,” said Axel. “Everyone’s unique.”

  “But how?” Xion wondered. “We’re Nobodies. Don’t you need a heart to be unique?”

  “Oh, we have other things that set us apart. Like memories from before.”

  Axel said that like it was obvious, but to Xion, it wasn’t. “What memories?”

  Not to Roxas, either. “You remember things from before?”

  From “before”? Before what?

  Axel, in turn, seemed surprised that they didn’t understand. “It’s part of what makes us special in the Organization. Unlike lesser Nobodies, we remember our lives as humans.”

  “I don’t,” said Roxas.

  “Me neither,” Xion added.

  In fact, she was hearing about this for the first time.

  Axel scratched his head, letting out a tiny sigh. “Well, you two are especially special.”

  I don’t get it, Xion thought. How were she and Roxas special?

  As she stared into her lap, perplexed, Roxas kept asking questions. “So, Axel, what were you like when you were human?”

  Xion glanced up at Axel, too, eager to see his reaction.

  “Me…?” At a loss, he shrugged. “I dunno. Same guy, more or less.”

  “Lucky,” said Roxas. “I wish I could remember.”

  “Yeah,” Xion murmured. Axel was fortunate to have memories.

  “You’re not missing much,” Axel said flatly.

  What was he saying? That having memories was a bad thing? How could it be?

  “But I can’t remember anything…” Roxas dropped his gaze. “Not even my first week as a Nobody.”

  Just like me.

  I can’t remember anything.

  “Yeah, ’cos you were off in outer space,” Axel remarked.