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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3168 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
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Forty-Seven - Atlantica

They decided to spend one more day with Tifa and her friends in the Seventh Heaven, preparing themselves for the next step of their journey. Tifa and Barret drove them back out to the outskirts of Edge, where they stood by the truck and watched as Kai opened a new portal to the Paths of Darkness. Kaoru turned back to wave at Tifa, who returned the wave with a grin, then followed his friends into the World Between Worlds.
“I wonder where we’re going to end up next.” Rinally said, her hands folded behind her head as she trailed behind Kai. He was currently in the lead, with Kaoru bringing up the rear. “I hope it’s nice.”
“Like tropical nice or like, giant monsters aren’t trying to eat our faces nice?” Kaoru asked with a smile.
“Definitely tropical nice. Although, I’ll settle for giant monsters not eating our faces.”
“Wherever we end up,” Kai said, “we’d better be ready.”
Rin jerked her thumb at the backpack she was carrying. “I think we’re set. Elena gave me more mana potions, and Marlene and Denzel gave us some healing potions. Tifa made sure we had enough food to last us an entire lifetime.”
Kai looked back at her with a tiny smile. “I wasn’t thinking about supplies, but, noted.”
Kaoru laughed, and even Rinally grinned widely. It felt good to be happy, considering everything they had just gone through. Kaoru hadn’t forgotten Haiku’s death, or that he and Kai had killed her, but after talking with Tifa, Vincent, Reeve, Rufus, and everyone else about it, it didn’t sting as much. He didn’t like the idea of killing, but he knew it was going to be necessary in the fights they would face in the future. If he didn’t want to die, then he would have to make sure that it was his enemy who did. Even if that enemy was Hiromu.
They traveled along with softly glowing path in almost silence, speaking in whispers if they had to talk. It wasn’t so much that they were afraid of attracting the attention of the denizens of the World Between Worlds, but that this place was so quiet already and there was a tranquil sort of peace in that. Eventually, their path came to an end, and Kai opened a new doorway that would take them out of the Paths and to a new world.
“I smell the ocean.” Kaoru said.
“Me, too.” Rinally said after taking a deep breath.
“What’s the ocean?” Kai asked.
“It’s a big body of salt water.” Kaoru explained. “It usually covers a decent portion of the world, and has all kinds of creatures living in it. I used to go to the beach all the time when I was little.”
“The Sky Islands were above a great big ocean that covered our entire world.” Rinally said. “People would sail down from the Islands and fish or hunt for coral. It was a big part of our industry and tourism.”
Kai still looked confused. Intellectually, he understood what they were saying, but he still couldn’t visualize such a thing. He looked toward the portal, which reflected a night sky filled with thousands of stars, but showed nothing of the ocean. “Well, I guess there’s a first time for everything.”
He started through, followed by Kaoru and Rinally, who was saying, “I wouldn’t mind relaxing on a beach for on-aaahhh!”
Kaoru echoed Rinally’s cry of shock and surprise and fear as they exited through the portal into thin air. All three of them plummeted down, down, down, until they hit the surface of the dark ocean and sank beneath the waves. Kaoru fought not to suck in a lungful of salt water as he tried to swim to the surface. He wasn’t sure how far he had sunk, or how far it was to the surface. He didn’t dare open his eyes, knowing from experience how much they would smart and sting because of the salt. He couldn’t even tell where Rinally and Kai were, but he hoped they were heading toward the surface as well. He reached and reached, but he could only feel water against his skin, and his lungs were beginning to burn. If he didn’t reach the surface soon, he’d drown.
He kicked his legs as hard as he could, fighting for every inch and clawing his way through the heavy water, but to no avail. His chest was a single focus of pain, and then he couldn’t hold his breath any longer. All the air in his lungs exploded out of his mouth in a rush of bubbles and water rushed in.
And he could breathe.
Kaoru opened his eyes, startled at the fact he was breathing underwater. He was startled then to find that his eyes didn’t burn at all from the touch of the water, and he could actually see through the starlit water as if he were on land. Then he looked down at his legs.
Well.
Tail.
His legs had fused together to form a silvery-green tail with a wide fin at the end. He sank a little as he stilled in his surprise, then kicked his tail and felt himself rise. There was no sign of his shoes or his pants, but he still wore his blue headphones, his hooded jacket, and his shirt. He spun around, marveling at how easy he could glide through the water, how he could breathe even though he was certain it was water flowing into his lungs rather than oxygen, and how he could see perfectly even though he knew it wasn’t possible.
This is just like what happened in Halloween Town. The world changed our clothes so that we could fit in. This world must have done the same thing, except it changed our bodies so that we could survive in this underwater world.
He looked around him, trying to spot Kai and Rinally. He could feel Kai somewhere below him, so he angled his body downward and dove deep, trying to find his friend. As he slipped through the water, shapes began to make themselves clear to him. He could see the rippled sands of the ocean’s floor, the patches of sea grass growing here and there, along with huge boulders and clumps of coral. Fish swam by, startled by his approach. He spotted then a massive shipwreck, full of holes and covered in barnacles and sea plants, and he could see a figure floating just outside one of the holes. It seemed to be arguing with the ship, and Kaoru realized someone else must be inside the shipwreck, hiding or arguing back.
As Kaoru approached, Kai turned to look up at him, his red eyebrows shooting upward as he saw Kaoru’s changed appearance. Kaoru stared at Kai as well. Like Kaoru, the redhead’s legs had fused together into a black shark’s tail, but unlike Kaoru, Kai was bare-chested. All he wore was his armor on his left arm and a dark violet and gold sash around his waist in place of a belt.
“Why do you get to keep your clothes?” Kai asked as Kaoru swam close.
Kaoru shrugged. “I don’t know. But from where I’m swimming, I don’t mind your ensemble.”
Kai scowled, but Kaoru could tell he was pleased with the comment. “Well, I guess I don’t mind looking at your tail either.”
“If you two are done making out, maybe you can help me!”
Kai rolled his eyes and jerked his thumb toward the shipwreck. “She’s been hiding in there ever since we realized we weren’t drowning. I keep telling her she can come out, but apparently, Rin’s embarrassed by whatever she turned into.”
Kaoru frowned and swam closer to the hole in the ship’s hull. “Come on, Rinally. It can’t be that bad. What, do you have tentacles instead of a tail?”
“No.”
“So what’s the problem? Are you in another tiny skirt?”
“No!”
Kaoru pulled himself half into the hole and looked around for Rinally. He spotted her in the shadows of the ship, her back half-turned to him so that the pale skin of her shoulder was the only bit of her that was illuminated. He couldn’t quite figure out what was making her so upset. She had a normal-looking tail, in the same shape and form as Kaoru’s, only with the same sort of black color as Kai’s, with little silver lines shot through in whirling designs. Her waist was ornamented by a beautiful seashell belt, which had several pouches on it. He saw the pale expanse of her stomach, which wasn’t unusual, because Rin usually wore a grey tank-top that didn’t really do much to hide her belly if her arms pulled up far enough, but as his eyes continued to travel upwards, he realized what exactly was going on.
“Rin?” Kaoru ventured. “Are you naked?”
“No!” she shouted, almost hysterical. But his question got her to turn to face him, and in her anger or hysterics, she completely forgot what her problem apparently was.
And her problem, it seemed, was that her only clothing - besides the seashell belt - was a bikini top made of two clamshells.
Kaoru felt his cheeks warm. “Oh.”
“Oh? Oh, he says!” Rin shrieked. Then she realized where he was staring and shrieked again before wrapping her arms over her chest to hide her seashell bra. “This isn’t fair! First the lolita skirt and now this?!”
“What is it?” Kai asked from behind Kaoru.
Kaoru leaned out of the hole and looked at Kai. “She’s only wearing a bikini made out of shells.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
Kai stared for a while. Then he turned to the hole. “Stop being stupid, Rin! What does it matter if you’re wearing only a bikini?”
“It matters to me!” Rin yelled from inside the shipwreck.
“It doesn’t matter to us!” Kai yelled back.
“That’s because you’d rather stare at Kaoru’s ass than my boobs, but that’s not the point!”
“So what’s the point?” Kai asked, exasperated. “This is stupid, Rin. We’re wasting time with this prissy crap.”
Rinally made a frustrated noise. “This isn’t exactly how I want to look going around meeting people of this world!”
“Oh, come on, it’s not like you’ve got anything worth looking at anyway.”
Kaoru quickly jerked to one side to avoid the rock that suddenly sailed through the portal and came dangerously close to smacking Kai in the face. He wondered if Kai looked terrified or pissed and decided on the latter. Before Kai could swim into the shipwreck and pull Rinally out by her arm or her hair, Kaoru caught his wrist and shrugged out of his jacket, pushing it through the opening toward Rinally.
“Here, Rin. Put that on.”
“Thank you, Kaoru. It’s nice to know at least one of you is sensitive!”
Kai glowered at the shipwreck before turning his gaze to Kaoru. “Why do you indulge her like that?”
“Because she knows Thundaga and we’re in water.”
Clearly Kai hadn’t considered that, because he suddenly became thoughtful and eyed the shipwreck with a healthier respect for the volatile personality that lurked within it. But he didn’t apologize to her when Rinally finally emerged from the ship, wearing Kaoru’s jacket fully zipped up to cover herself. She glowered at Kai, who glowered back at her, but refrained from saying anything.
Kaoru looked at Rinally and asked, “Better?”
“I guess.” Rin replied grumpily. “I can’t believe I always get the short end of the stick with these kinds of worlds. Is it because I’m a girl?”
“Probably,” Kaoru answered honestly, earning Rin’s hot glare. “I mean, the world may be sentient enough to call for a Keyblade user to help, and to change our appearances so we fit in, but I doubt it takes into consideration the personalities of the people coming to it.”
Rin’s glare lessened and she blew out a sigh. “I guess. I hate bikinis.” She whirled on Kai and shoved a finger in his face, and Kaoru wondered if Rin knew how close her finger was to Kai’s teeth. “Say one word and I will kill you.”
Kai held up his hands in surrender. “Yeah, sure, whatever. Look, can we go now? We ought to explore this world some, and see if we can find why we were called here. Especially since we aren’t in danger of drowning anymore.”
“If we swim around aimlessly, we could get even more lost than we already are.” Rin pointed out. “Can you guys sense anything?”
Kaoru closed his eyes and tried to quiet his mind enough to focus. Slowly, he turned in a circle, trying to pinpoint a direction to travel that felt right. Except he couldn’t feel a thing. There was nothing making itself known to him, whereas before, he could just sense where he was supposed to go because it just felt like where he was needed. So he opened his eyes and looked toward Kai, who had done the same thing as Kaoru. When Kai’s eyes opened this time, instead of being emerald, they were his Heartless eyes. It took some time for the gold and black to bleed into green and white, which made Kaoru worry.
“There’s a huge presence of Darkness here.” Kai said at last, looking at Kaoru as if to reassure him that he was fine. “But I can’t tell if it’s evil or if it just is.”
“I guess we could still check it out.” Rinally ventured.
“We might as well,” said Kaoru. “We’re here for a reason. Maybe it isn’t to protect the Light this time, but Darkness.”
The three teenagers stared at each other for a moment, then Kai began to swim in the direction he’d felt the huge presence of Darkness, leading the way toward their next adventure.
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn