Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days

by Tomoco Kanemaki

  And soon the Keyblade was knocked from her grasp, and she was on the ground.

  The blow to her chest hurt terribly. She couldn’t breathe or even roll off her face on the dirt.

  In the edges of her vision, her opponent pushed back the hood. She felt a hand on her back and reflexively dragged herself up. And then at last—she saw his face.

  The tall young man had silver hair and a black blindfold tied over his eyes.

  For some reason, he backed away from her, afraid. “Who—who are you? Why do you have a Keyblade?”

  Uncertain why he was asking her that, Xion retorted with her own question. “What about you? Why are you dressed like one of us?”

  He turned his back on her and started to walk away, before replying at last. “To make sure my best friend can sleep in peace.”

  Best friend…? Sleep? What was he talking about?

  “I don’t know who you’re supposed to be, but you can’t fight fire with sparks. Your Keyblade is a sham—worthless.” He picked up the Keyblade from the ground and tossed it at her.

  “Are you saying my Keyblade is fake?” She ducked her head for a moment, then glared at him. “What do you know?!”

  The Keyblade was her weapon. Roxas had helped her get it back. It was real and important to her—nothing fake about it.

  Her fingers closed tight around it, and she leaped to her feet for another attack.

  But he didn’t even have to use his sword to dodge the strike and sweep her feet out from under her. Xion tumbled to the ground again.

  “Just find a new crowd. Trust me, you should get out from under their shadow.” With that, he kept walking.

  “You’re the fake!” she cried, pushing herself up.

  This impostor is telling me that my Keyblade is a sham? she thought. Well, he’s wrong.

  The young man paused. “Fair enough. Maybe I’m the biggest nobody of them all.”

  Enfolding himself into darkness, he disappeared.

  Xion slammed her fist against the ground and screamed.

  Roxas was absently watching the sunset, having ice cream as usual. Xion wasn’t here yet. And he felt like he hadn’t been seeing her in the lobby lately, either.

  “Hey, Roxas!”

  That was a voice he hadn’t heard in a while. He whirled around. “Axel! You’re back?”

  “Yup, as of just now.” Axel sat down beside him.

  “It sounded like you’d be gone longer,” said Roxas.

  “Anyone else would’ve been. I’m too good at my job. So how’re you holding up? Where’s Xion?”

  “She’s not here yet.” Roxas bit into his ice cream. “I think she’ll show up soon, though…”

  Even as he reassured Axel, Roxas was uneasy in a way he’d never felt before.

  “Huh. Well, not a huge surprise. You two have probably been making a mess of things since I left.”

  “Have not!” Roxas protested, and Axel laughed.

  That nervousness was just him being silly. Wasn’t it?

  “It’s getting late. This isn’t like her…,” Roxas mumbled.

  Xion never came.

  She couldn’t get herself in the mood for ice cream.

  Xion sat on her bed, hugging her knees. The wound hurt.

  She’d checked on it a little while ago. Under the protective cloak was a huge bruise. But she would be in trouble if they knew the impostor had beaten her so soundly, so she didn’t report it.

  There had to be a reason why that silver-haired guy was wearing an Organization cloak. And he had some kind of power—something that gave her that weird feeling when she fought him. Like a Saïx aura. Who was he?

  Even if I get to face him again, I probably won’t be much of a threat as I am now. But I have to. I have to fight him.

  I have to, I have to, I have to.

  Xion repeated the words to herself. I have to defeat him…

  Since Xion never did go up to the clock tower the day before, she had missed Axel’s return.

  Hoping to get to the lobby early and tell her that Axel was back, Roxas hurried down the corridor. He could get to work once he talked to Xion…

  “Just one more chance, please!”

  The voice that suddenly rang through the hallway was hers.

  Oh, good, Roxas thought. I’ll get to see her today.

  He turned the corner to see Xion and Saïx there. He was about to run headlong toward them, but the frigid tension in the air stopped him short.

  “We can’t afford to spend any more chances on you,” Saïx was telling her. “You were a mistake we never should have made. A failure.”

  Failure…? What was that about?

  With one parting glance at Xion’s miserable, downcast face, Saïx turned and left.

  “…Xion?” Roxas said tentatively.

  She looked up at him—and ran.

  “…Xion…”

  He murmured her name again in the empty hall.

  Roxas was on another mission at the Beast’s castle with Xaldin. The only difference was their objective: subjugation rather than investigation.

  Xaldin took down Heartless after Heartless with his long lances. But even as Roxas chased after him doing cleanup, the incident with Xion from that morning weighed on his mind. What happened…?

  “Hmph. Like swatting flies,” Xaldin grumbled. “Come along, Roxas. Our mission is complete.”

  “Right.”

  Despite its size, the giant Heartless they’d faced today was not very strong. Roxas was glad to be finished. He wanted to get to the clock tower as soon as he could, in case Xion showed up.

  Just as they were about to leave, a terrible roar echoed through the castle.

  “Now what?!” Roxas jumped, automatically looking around.

  “That was our beastly host, I imagine,” said Xaldin. “We should find out what’s happened.”

  Roxas nodded. The Beast’s chambers were not far from here.

  On the way, he noticed even more damage than before.

  Another roar split the air—louder and closer.

  “No! The rose—!”

  That was the Beast, shouting with words now. Xaldin and Roxas peeked inside the doors to see him holding his head in desperation. “The rose— The last petal will fall, and I’ll never— Unless… No! I don’t even want to think about it—!”

  “Hmm, this is fascinating,” said Xaldin. “His monstrous form is somehow tied to the rose.”

  “You mean, his curse?” Roxas asked, keeping his voice low.

  “Yes. It seems that unless he completes some task before the rose withers, he’ll remain a beast forever.” Xaldin smirked at his own cleverness. “A beastly curse and a rose… Heh-heh. This will prove useful.”

  “How?”

  “Trying to explain it to you would be a waste of time. Let’s go, Roxas. No more dallying.” With that nonanswer, Xaldin left the chambers.

  Roxas dallied anyway, peering through the doors again. The rose, the thing he treasures, is his weakness?

  Nope, I don’t get it.

  I wonder if Axel will know what it all means…?

  This stupid mission doesn’t even matter, Xion thought, swinging the Keyblade at the Heartless in front of her face.

  It only took a single blow to eliminate the bug-like Heartless she had been assigned for today. But for each one she struck down, another appeared, grating on her nerves.

  Halloween Town was a dismal place, full of gravestones. Xion stared helplessly up at its giant moon overhead. What am I supposed to do…?

  There was no one at the clock tower again.

  I was really hoping she’d be here today, Roxas thought, eating his ice cream alone.

  It was Axel who finally arrived. “So what’s up with Xion?”

  “She’s not here again.”

  “Oh well…” Axel took his perch next to Roxas.

  They were silent for a moment.

  After a few more bites of ice cream, Roxas remembered his questions. “Hey, Axel…�
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  “Hmm?” Axel turned mid-bite.

  “Do you have anything you couldn’t stand to lose?”

  Axel shifted in surprise and pulled the ice cream bar out of his mouth. “What? Where’d that come from?”

  “I saw someone today and…he was talking about something like that. It was so important he couldn’t even think about losing it. Xaldin told me that’s a weakness. And I started thinking about how I don’t have anything—”

  “Yeah, because you don’t have a heart.” Axel sighed, weary of having to point it out.

  “Oh…I guess.” Roxas stared down at his dangling feet.

  Nobodies must have things they couldn’t stand to lose…but I don’t.

  He just wasn’t finding the right words for what he wanted to say. How could he get Axel to understand?

  “I mean, Demyx doesn’t have a heart, but he’d go nuts if you took his sitar, wouldn’t he?” Roxas tried.

  “Huh…you’ve got a point. So, okay, say you don’t need a heart for things to be important to you… Maybe the closest thing we Nobodies have is our pasts. It’s the memories that give things value.”

  “Memories…,” Roxas mumbled at his lap. “Well, I don’t remember my past, so I guess that explains it.”

  Axel pondered that for a few seconds before suggesting, “What about your present, though?”

  Roxas looked up. Somehow, he hadn’t expected to hear that from Axel. “Huh?”

  “You’ve got your memories since you joined up with the Organization, right? There must be something special to you there.”

  “I dunno…”

  Memories…? Roxas didn’t have any from when he was human. But he did remember his time with the Organization so far.

  “Wait, you’re right. I don’t want to forget about you or Xion.”

  Forgetting something means losing a memory. And that’s what I don’t want to lose—my memories of them.

  But where do they go when you forget? What happened to my memories of my human life?

  “See?” said Axel. “Everyone’s got things they wanna hang on to. Even us Nobodies.”

  Roxas slumped over again. It was…

  “Kind of a scary thought.” The words tumbled out of him.

  “Oh yeah? How do you manage that without a heart?” Axel shot back.

  “I mean, when I think of losing you and Xion, or my memories of you…to forget what it’s like to be with my friends… It is scary.” It was like a cold breeze had found its way under his cloak. Roxas shivered.

  The mere idea made him so afraid.

  Afraid…? Scared? What does that mean anyway?

  “Fear’s an emotion. It doesn’t exist for us.”

  “But…I am feeling it. I’m scared right now.”

  Axel and Xion ceasing to exist—the thought was even more frightening to him than his own termination. Roxas didn’t want to dwell on it at all.

  Axel looked away into the distance. “Something in you probably does remember what it’s like to be scared. So you think you’re feeling it now.”

  Xion’s not coming again, Roxas thought, raising his eyes to the sunset.

  What if I forget all the memories I have now? What’ll happen to me…?

  Chapter 4

  The Wrong Button

  WITH A GREAT YAWN, AXEL STRETCHED OUT ON THE LOBBY’S SOFA, which remained as cold and uncomfortable as ever.

  There was no one here yet. Guess I’m actually early…

  He was only up at this hour because he’d never gone to sleep, working through the night on his report of the mission in Castle Oblivion. But pulling an all-nighter to finish a report did not gain him a reprieve from missions.

  He twisted to look up at Kingdom Hearts shining outside the window.

  “You’re here early,” said Saïx.

  Axel waited a second before rolling over to face him. “So are you.”

  “No, I’m not. You’re just usually late.” Saïx took up his usual post.

  That time already, huh? thought Axel. Just as he was yawning and stretching again, another member arrived. “Hey, Xion.”

  “…Good morning,” she said without meeting his eyes, marching straight over to Saïx before Axel could get another word in edgewise. Something in the set of her shoulders seemed to warn him away. “Saïx. Today’s mission?”

  “Eliminating Heartless in Twilight Town.”

  “Understood.” Xion didn’t utter a syllable beyond what was absolutely necessary. A dark portal opened up in the corner of the lobby, and she disappeared into it with no further ado.

  Then Axel realized he hadn’t seen her at the clock tower, yesterday or the day before. He stared at the wisps of darkness swirling away to nothing in her wake.

  Saïx noticed his gaze. “Surely you’ve heard?”

  Axel was baffled. “Heard what? I just haven’t talked to her since I got back, that’s all.”

  “Hmph…” Saïx seemed to regret saying anything. “Just that we know for sure she is defective.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Roxas entered the lobby then, and Axel bit back the rest of his questions.

  “Hey, Axel, you’re here early,” Roxas remarked.

  “Uh-huh…” He nodded vaguely and peered at Saïx again.

  But now Saïx was all business. “Roxas, you’ll collect hearts in Twilight Town today.”

  “Okay.”

  “Get to it.”

  Roxas nodded and looked back at Axel. “See you later, Axel.”

  “Uh, sure,” Axel fumbled, sleep-deprived. “See you.”

  Just like Xion, Roxas wasted no time heading into the Corridors of Darkness.

  Saïx had sent both Roxas and Xion to the same world. And Twilight Town. Something about it didn’t sit right with Axel, but when he tried to pin down exactly what, he couldn’t come up with anything solid.

  Saïx spoke to him first—after making sure that Roxas was gone. “I suppose you have questions?”

  Axel gave him a look, took a breath, and asked, “So are Xion and Roxas working together, or…?”

  “I assigned them separate missions. Eliminating Heartless and gathering hearts,” Saïx replied. “But I did arrange it so that they’re likely to cross paths.”

  “On purpose? What for? And why you?” Axel pressed, hardly pausing between questions.

  “It’s necessary that they stay close, to some degree.”

  “Necessary for what?”

  “…Don’t concern yourself with them too much.”

  “And after all your efforts to make me concerned. What are you playing at?”

  “You’ll understand soon enough. Now, it’s about time you heard your assignment today. The outsider in the Organization cloak—Riku, that is. I might as well use his name with you.”

  “…How did you already read my report?”

  “I can guess that much without reading it.”

  One of the things Axel had investigated at Castle Oblivion was the matter of the cloak. But all the cloaks were accounted for—which meant somebody had obtained one through other means. Not just anyone could do that. And Riku’s whereabouts were unknown, so that was the name Axel put forth in his report with a disclaimer that it was only his speculation. Saïx had apparently been speculating along the same lines.

  “Follow him,” Saïx ordered. “But do not engage him. The last to try was Xion, and it ended poorly.”

  “She lost…?” Maybe that was why she looked so glum, Axel thought.

  “Of course, all that means is that number fourteen is defective.”

  “You’re calling her defective just because she couldn’t beat Riku? Seems a little harsh.”

  When Axel had last encountered him, Riku had not been all that impressive. Since then, however, he’d immersed himself in power. The power of darkness—of Xehanort. Riku’s mastery over it had been far from complete at Castle Oblivion, but that was some time ago. There was no telling how strong he might be now.

&nbs
p; “…Is it?” Saïx retorted.

  “Well, why are you—?”

  Saïx promptly cut off Axel’s question. “Go to whichever world you want to try first. Just track him down, find out what he’s doing. That may give us some clues leading to the hero of light.”

  Guess I won’t get any more answers today, Axel thought. But seriously, what is your problem with Xion?

  He gave up and nodded. “Got it.”

  Saïx narrowed his eyes. “Don’t concern yourself with Xion.”

  It was the second time he’d said that. Axel returned Saïx’s stare, trying to piece together what he really meant. “Is that an order? Or a warning?”

  Saïx, of course, gave him no answer.

  Another day, another overly simple mission. Xion trudged through the familiar streets of Twilight Town in search of her target Heartless.

  For the past two days, she hadn’t been going to the clock tower. Nor had she exchanged more than three words with Axel or Roxas. She didn’t want to talk to anyone.

  She didn’t know what to tell them if she did. Or what she was supposed to do.

  On top of that, she could barely sleep because of constant nightmares.

  She couldn’t quite remember what they were about. But they terrified her.

  Her steps paused, and the clock tower’s bells chimed in the distance.

  What should I do…?

  “Xion!”

  Her breath caught and she turned. She knew that voice—it was Roxas. And he was sprinting toward her with a grin.

  He barely stopped before crashing into her, breathing hard. This…isn’t a coincidence, is it? Xion thought. Did he follow me here?

  “Roxas… Don’t you have a mission?”

  “Yeah, they sent me here today.”

  “Really? Mine’s here, too.”

  This is weird. Normally the Organization didn’t send two members to the same world at the same time on separate missions. It probably wasn’t an accident. Had Saïx done it on purpose?

  Xion couldn’t think why he would. She raised her head, squinting in the low sunlight.

  She didn’t know what to say to Roxas, but she couldn’t leave him hanging.