“Don’t worry! Leave it to us!” Sora replied as he and Goofy attacked. The Heartless that appeared in Traverse Town should be weak enough to take down with one blow. But—
“—Ack!” A Heartless knocked Sora flat.
Goofy charged with his shield up, but they knocked him back, too. “Yipe!”
“Aw, c’mon— Firaga! Fira!” The man had told him he’d forgotten his magic, but with his wand in his hand, Donald kept trying. “Fire! Hey, it worked!”
A tiny little fireball leaped from his wand. Compared to what they’d had when they fought Ansem, it hardly counted as magic, but there it was.
Sora got up, shouting, and swung the Keyblade at them over and over. “There!” Attacking with all his might, he’d finally taken out a Heartless.
“Gawrsh, we really have lost our power, huh…?” Goofy said miserably.
“Wak! But I can use Fire!” said Donald, waving his wand.
“And I’ve still got my Keyblade,” Sora added. “You’ve got your shield, too, right, Goofy?”
“But…” Goofy stared at the shield in his hand.
Donald looked up at him. “We’ve just gone back to where we started!”
“You mean, like when we left our castle…?”
“Or maybe when we first came to Traverse Town?” said Sora.
This feeling—the sense they had of fighting—it was like when they’d first encountered the Heartless in this very town.
“Oh…maybe that’s it,” Goofy agreed.
“Anyway, the three of us are still together, so we’ll be fine!” Sora grinned and thumped Goofy’s shoulder.
“You’d better be more careful, or the Heartless will make sure you’re not fine at all.”
It was a familiar voice. They turned.
“Leon!” Donald shouted with a jump.
Standing there was a man with a scar on his face—Leon.
Sora ran closer to him. “Leon! What are you doing in Castle Oblivion?”
“Castle…Oblivion? What are you talking about? This is Traverse Town.”
“Umm… But it’s not really…” Sora looked back at Donald and Goofy. “How can I make this make sense?”
“Anyway, how do you know my name? Who are you?” Leon drew the Gunblade from its place across his back.
Behind Sora, Donald jumped up. “What d’you mean?!”
“Gawrsh, that’s not very nice, Leon!” Goofy protested.
“I’ve never met the likes of you before,” said Leon.
“Never met— Quit playing, Leon!” Sora retorted. “We all fought the Heartless together! You know that!”
They’d spoken so many times…and Leon had helped him, too.
“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Leon said coldly. “I don’t even know your names.”
Goofy hung his head. “You don’t?”
“Sorry.” Leon folded his arms, looking down at them.
Sora’s shoulders fell and he stared at the cobblestones. “How could you just…forget about us?”
“I feel for you, but you’ve got the wrong guy. It happens all the time. Don’t take it so personally, Sora.”
“…Huh?” At that Sora looked up again.
“You do know his name!” Donald jumped.
“Now—hold on!” Leon frowned in confusion, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d said. “Why do I know your name?!”
“You think Leon’s just kidding around?” Goofy whispered to Donald.
“If he is, it’s not very funny!” Donald muttered back, peeved.
“Who’s kidding around, Goofy?” said Leon. “You and Donald are the ones who—”
“Hey!”
Sora and his friends all jumped at once. Leon did know their names after all!
“That…can’t be right… Something’s wrong with my memory. What’s happening…?”
As Leon was getting lost in thought, a cheerful voice spoke from behind him.
“I dunno, Leon. Maybe Aerith was onto something after all.” It was Yuffie. “She said she sensed some kind of uncanny power. Well, this is pretty uncanny. Maybe you should take Sora and his friends to see Aerith.”
“Yuffie! You know my name!” Sora ran up to her.
“Yep! Looks like you know mine, too.” Yuffie turned to Leon, making her short black hair bounce, and grinned.
“You know him?”
“Nope! Total stranger.” She looked at Sora again. “But I definitely know his name. It’s strange, sure, but convenient! We can skip the introductions.”
“How is it that you can accept this situation so easily…?” Leon held his head as if it ached.
“Heh. Well, I’m gonna run ahead and fill Aerith in. Leon, you can give them the grand tour!” Yuffie smiled, teasing him a little, and sprang up high to take a shortcut over the rooftops.
Leon sighed and put away the Gunblade.
“Leon…” Sora looked up at him nervously.
“I guess it’s no use dwelling on it. Come on, follow me.” He took a brisk pace deeper into the First District. The trio followed him.
“Are you taking us…to the hotel in the Second District?” Sora asked.
“You even know that?”
“Not really… Well, I didn’t know exactly… I kind of guessed.”
He could never forget the first time he’d met Leon in Traverse Town—not even if he wanted to. Leon totally kicked my butt that time…
That gave him an idea.
“Oh, I know! Hey, Leon!” Sora exclaimed.
“What?”
“Maybe you’ll remember if we fight!”
Leon turned and looked at him hard. Sora brandished the Keyblade.
“You…want to fight me?” Leon said skeptically.
“Us, too!” Goofy held his shield ready, too, and Donald his wand.
“Can you guys just watch this one?” Sora told them. “The first time I saw Leon, I fought him on my own.”
“Oh yeah! Ahyuck! ’Cos you hadn’t met us yet!”
Donald and Goofy moved back, opening a space for the fight.
“Are you serious? I don’t think this will be much of a fight…” Leon drew the Gunblade again, still looking doubtful.
“We won’t know until we try, right?” Sora grinned and took a lower stance, aiming the end of the Keyblade at him.
“All right…have it your way. Who won this fight in your memory, by the way?”
“…Well, you did… But I dunno about now. Here I come!”
Sora jumped up. But when he attacked with all his might, Leon easily deflected it.
“Shouldn’t you just quit while you still can? There’s no way you can beat me.”
“You don’t know that!” Sora adjusted his stance and jumped again—this time, though, Leon’s Gunblade blew him away. “Ngh!”
“Don’t be so reckless. You get the picture by now, don’t you?” Leon put away the Gunblade.
“Sora! Are you okay?” Goofy ran to Sora and helped him up.
“That wasn’t nice, Leon!” Donald shook his wand at him.
“I only did what he asked,” Leon replied. “I don’t know how strong you guys might be—but you don’t really know how to fight.”
“We just forgot, that’s all!” Donald stamped his feet.
“Forgot? How do you forget something like that?”
“Umm… Well, that is…” Stuck for an answer, Donald cocked his head.
“Anyway, let’s go and see Aerith. We can talk more there.” With that Leon turned and kept walking.
It was a room in the Second District hotel—the very same room where Leon and Yuffie had first told Sora about the Heartless.
“I brought them,” Leon announced.
“Welcome back!” Yuffie greeted him brightly, sitting on the bed. Beside her, Aerith smiled quietly and looked at Sora with her blue eyes that seemed to peer into the truth of everything.
But she said nothing. “Aerith, did you forget me, too?” Sora asked her uneasily.
“I don’t know whether to say ‘Nice to meet you’ or ‘Good to see you again.’ I don’t think I know you, but I still feel like you belong here,” said Aerith. “My heart says we’ve met before…but I don’t remember you, Sora.”
“Yeah, exactly! Like we’ve never met, but it still doesn’t feel weird that I know your name.” Yuffie shrugged and grinned, her white teeth gleaming.
“Like we…belong here?” Goofy cocked his head.
“Right, like you’re familiar somehow! I mean, how can I put it—like we met somewhere a long time ago or…maybe not…,” said Yuffie.
“But…we took on the Heartless together and everything!” Sora insisted.
Leon folded his arms and sighed. “It feels like you’re right…but I can’t remember.” He slowly shook his head.
“Then I guess you won’t remember what you told me…,” Sora mumbled. “In Hollow Bastion, when I sealed the Keyhole, you said…”
Donald picked up the cue. “‘We may never meet again…’”
“‘…But we’ll never forget each other,’” Leon found himself saying.
“Wak! You do remember!” Donald jumped.
“They’re right, Leon! I remember you saying that, too. And then I told Sora, ‘I couldn’t forget you even if I wanted to.’ Didn’t I?” Yuffie tilted her head at him, uncertain of her own memories.
“I guess we can’t write it off as a coincidence, then.” Leon frowned in concentration.
Everyone had that memory—but they couldn’t remember meeting these visitors. What could it mean?
“Yes. Our hearts remember—that is, we feel the memories in your heart, Sora.” Aerith stood and stepped closer to him and gently took his face in her hands, looking into his eyes.
“Sora’s heart…?” Donald said blankly.
“We don’t know you, Sora,” said Aerith, “but your heart is full of memories of us together.”
“Gawrsh, what’s that mean?” Goofy wondered.
“Sora’s memories must resonate in our hearts, too. Maybe they tell us things we couldn’t otherwise know.”
“So you’re saying that Sora’s memories are affecting ours?” Leon asked.
Aerith turned to him, smiling a little. “His memories do seem to have a certain power.”
My memories…? thought Sora.
“Maybe it’s like that guy said, then… This town is just an illusion, something my memories created.” He frowned, sinking into thought.
Aerith turned back to him. “And…there’s someone special to you in this town?”
She spoke as if she knew everything.
“How did you know what he said?” Donald demanded.
But Sora just nodded. “Oh… I get it.”
“Huh? What do you get, Sora?!”
“My memories are resonating in her heart, telling her what happened.” Sora felt like it made sense somehow, to him.
“What’s that mean?”
“I dunno!”
Goofy and Donald both tilted their heads in confusion.
“Hmm. I can’t really explain it very well, but… It’s like you said,” Sora told Aerith. “A friend of mine is somewhere in this town— I mean, in Castle Oblivion.”
“Huh? Castle Oblivion?” Yuffie jumped up from the bed. “What’s that? There aren’t any castles around here.”
“That’s not quite what I mean… Um, it’s… Well…” He had serious doubts in his ability to explain it in a way that made enough sense.
“You’re still not sure what’s going on yourself,” Aerith spoke up, seeing Sora at such a loss. “Right?”
“Right. We just got here, after all,” said Sora. “I want to take a better look around and find out if this is really the Traverse Town we know.”
Donald and Goofy chimed in.
“Yeah, same here!”
“Me, too!”
“Well, this hasn’t begun to make sense yet—but go have a walk around town,” said Leon. “There are Heartless, but that’s no problem for you.”
“So, you know I can fight?” Sora said, quite self-assured.
Leon snorted. “I can’t say I know…but I feel like believing you. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Hey, don’t be such a stranger, Leon.” Sora grinned at him.
“Should I knock you around with the Gunblade again to make sure?” said Leon.
“You can hold off on that… C’mon, Donald, Goofy, let’s go!” Laughing, Sora dashed out of the hotel room.
The trio walked across the Second District square.
“So, you were sayin’… This town is just an illusion your memories created, right?” Goofy asked from behind Sora. “What’s that mean?”
“I told Aerith, too… I don’t really know. It just seems like this world is connected to my memories somehow.”
“But it can’t be an illusion!” Donald shouted, baffled. “We’re standing right in it!”
“Gee, what about me and Donald?” said Goofy. “Are we from your memories, too?”
“…Huh? Umm…I don’t really know…” Sora looked down.
If the town really was an illusion made out of his memories, then how could he tell the difference between the parts that were illusion and the parts that weren’t?
What if the Donald and Goofy next to him now were just illusions? Where were the real Donald and Goofy?
“This doesn’t make a whole lotta sense.” Goofy folded his arms.
But just as he did, Donald jumped up. “Heartless!”
Several of them appeared in the middle of the open square.
“All right, here we go!” cried Sora.
“But, we’re all weak now…,” Donald said uncertainly, tightly gripping his wand, which wouldn’t make anything now but tiny little flames. He exchanged glances with Goofy, who looked nervous, too.
“What’re you talking about? We’ve just gone back to how we were when we met, right?”
“Oh, right! I get it!” Goofy’s smile returned. “Let’s go!” The trio rushed into the swarm of Heartless.
They ran for the door to the Third District. Sora leaned up against it, catching his breath. “Doesn’t it feel like we got a lot stronger just from that?”
“Yeah! I can use Blizzard now, too!” Laughing, Donald waved his wand around. Ice crystals stuck on the end sparkled.
“It’s like the strength we lost is comin’ back, little by little,” Goofy said brightly.
If they had just been booted back to the beginning, there wasn’t any reason to get discouraged. All they had to do was keep going forward, and they would get stronger again.
Sora held the Keyblade in both hands above his head and stretched.
“Huh?” Donald exclaimed, as he was about to waddle into the Third District.
“What’s the matter?” said Goofy.
“It’s Cid!” Donald ran toward him.
He had a bellyband over a white T-shirt and goggles pushed up over his hair—just the same as the Cid they remembered.
“Cid!” Sora followed Donald.
“Hey, whaddaya know. It’s Sora!” Then Cid paused and scratched his head. “…Hm? Sora? I’ve never met you before… But you do look like a Sora, what with the spiky hair and baggy pants…”
“It’s okay, Cid. That’s my name.”
Even if the Cid they were seeing wasn’t the real one, just the Cid from Sora’s memories, it still felt nice to be greeted by a friend.
“Well, uh, what do you guys need?” asked Cid.
“A friend of mine’s supposed to be somewhere in this castle— Er, in this town,” said Sora. “Got any ideas?”
Cid tilted his head, thinking. “Your friend, huh? Lately all this town sees is Heartless. Can’t take two steps without gettin’ ambushed. In fact, this plaza’s the worst.”
“The worst how?” said Goofy.
Cid looked up at the bell tower that rose from the gizmo shop in the Second District. “Word is, a jumbo-sized Heartless shows up when that bell rings.”
“Huh—I wonder if it could be…” Sora looked at Donald and Goofy.
They had fought a huge Heartless in this very square. And that was…
“If you value your hide, you’ll get out of here while the gettin’s good.” With that Cid left the square.
“Gawrsh, maybe we should leave, too,” said Goofy, stepping backward.
“But don’t you want to see what shows up?” said Sora.
“No, we don’t!” Donald snapped.
They were all remembering the thing that had appeared before. It was a Heartless like an enormous suit of armor, with hands and feet that came off to whirl around—the Guard Armor.
Suddenly the bell rang. Donald jumped “The bell! C’mon—let’s get out of here!”
And with a terrible rumble, something fell out of the sky—the Guard Armor, just as they had suspected.
“There it is! Run!” Donald was trying to escape, but Sora caught him.
“We’ll be fine. When we faced that thing, that was the first time we’d ever fought together, but we worked together and beat it!” Sora set his shoulders, not scared at all.
“But I don’t have all my magic!”
“You couldn’t use very strong magic back then, though, right?”
They spoke over the clanging sound of huge metal footsteps as the Guard Armor stomped closer to them.
“Yeah, but…” Donald looked like he still wanted a way out of the battle.
“I’m gonna fight, Donald.”
“Goofy?!”
“Back then we didn’t know each other too well, but we sure do now,” said Goofy. “We know how to fight together. We’ve still got that, so there’s no way we can’t be stronger than we were!”
“And maybe we won’t be able to beat it without your magic!” Sora looked into Donald’s face, grinning.
“All right! Fine!”
“That’s the spirit!” Sora turned and leaped at the Guard Armor, which was already close enough to hit. Goofy and Donald did the same.
“Hah!” Sora sprang up higher. He wasn’t as strong as he remembered being, but he could jump just as well. The Guard Armor’s hands waved back and forth, attacking, and he swung the Keyblade at them.
“Fire!” Donald hit it with magic and Goofy rushed in with his shield. Just like before, they were fighting as one.
First they took out the Guard Armor’s right arm, then its left, and then its feet, one after the other. And finally the torso…
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories The Novel (light novel) Page 2