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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3169 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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Fifty-Seven - Esthar

The portal deposited them into a wide barren wasteland.
Kaoru shielded his eyes from the sun and looked at the stretch of pale dusty ground that disappeared into the rippling horizon. He couldn’t see anything from where he stood, and he couldn’t see any rises in the terrain that would allow him to get a new vantage point. Kai and Rinally were also trying to see if there was anything in the directions they chose to look, but they too had the same results as Kaoru.
“So do we pick a direction and walk?” Kai asked.
“Well, we got all our supplies back from Edge, so it isn’t like we would starve.” Rinally pointed out.
“But we also don’t want to wander forever until we reach the edge of the continent or run out of supplies.” Kaoru said. “And nobody senses anything?”
Kai and Rinally shook their heads. “Not one damn thing.” Kai said. “It’s strange. It’s like this place is completely... I don’t know. Isolated. I don’t even feel a breeze, but the temperature isn’t sweltering, like it should be in a desert.”
“I have an idea.” Rinally started. “What if we waited until nightfall and see if we could see any lights? On a flat plane like this, with nothing breaking up the horizon, it should be real easy to see something like that.”
“Nightfall might not be for some hours yet,” Kaoru pointed out, “and anyway, what if this place doesn’t have a true night? What if the sun stays out all the time?”
“Well, there are places like that, even in the Sky Islands, but only at a certain time of year.”
“Which makes it likely that another world could share the same feature.”
Kai quietly listened to Kaoru and Rin discuss their options. He stared at the rippling horizon, seeing the mirage for what it was. Even though the world seemed to defy all logic of a desert, it didn’t change the fact that they were in one. Distance was deceptive. If they randomly chose a direction, they could end up walking forever without even seeing another soul. Or, they could walk right off a short cliff and take a long drop. Kai folded his arms over his chest, for once uncertain about what they should do.
“Well,” Kai said at last, when Kaoru and Rin had fallen silent, “we can’t afford to wait around. So we can either pick a direction and start walking and hope for the best, or we try and sense something out of the ordinary and walk that way.”
“But I don’t sense anything, even though I’m trying.” Rinally protested.
Kaoru’s answer was much the same, but he added, “I don’t even see Light shining anywhere.”
That gave Kai an idea, and all it took was a quick blink before the world’s color bled away and left the monochrome shades that only Kai could see when he utilized his powers of Darkness. The mirage in the distance vanished as if it had never been, and the flat plane allowed him to see for miles. He wasn’t looking for structures or for anything in particular, but when he spotted the multitude of hearts to their immediate north, he knew that something had to be there.
He blinked again and the world become technicolor again. Both Kaoru and Rin were watching him carefully, both wearing unsure expressions. Kai blew out a heavy sigh. “Remember when we were wandering around trying to find Edge? Kaoru asked me what I could see with my eyes when I tap into my powers of Darkness.”
“You said you could see hearts.” Kaoru said. Then his eyes widened as he realized what Kai had just done.
Rinally seemed to realize it too. “Did you see anything?”
“Yeah. To the north of us, there’s thousands of hearts. It’s the only high concentration of hearts in the entire vicinity, so I’m guessing it has to be a town or a city.”
“That’s amazing.” Kaoru said, smiling brightly.
Kai felt a flush creeping up his neck at the praise from the small blonde. “I’d started thinking, what if I had been able to see Edge without you having to climb up on a rock to see lights that Rin and I couldn’t see. I can see hearts with these eyes, so what if I could use them to find a high concentration?” He shrugged.
“Still, that’s really amazing.”
“I agree,” said Rinally. Kai glowered at her, but she just beamed at him.
“Let’s just start walking,” Kai growled.
The three started heading north, but as the hours passed and the sun began to go down, they didn’t seem to be any closer to the city. But as darkness spread across the sky and the moon and stars came out, another star appeared on the horizon, pulsing with light. It was the city Kai had spotted by looking for hearts. It was a huge, sprawling city lit up by bright lights that burned the darkness away and left a halo around the buildings. As they got closer, buildings began to resolve themselves out of the light, giant skyscrapers of silver metal and blue glass. The city was entirely criss-crossed by tubes of metal and glass, and they could see something sliding along inside the tubes, but they couldn’t make out what it was.
“Wow,” Kaoru breathed. “This completely rivals Paradise City in size, but it’s so much more sophisticated.”
“It looks almost like Lumina Cross.” Kai said. “The design is a lot more, I don’t know, elegant. Delicate.”
“It looks like it was designed by aliens.” Rinally stared back at Kaoru and Kai as they gave her a questioning look. “What? It does!”
“Come on.” Kaoru took the lead then and the three of them headed into the city. It was bustling and busy, with people heading this way and that, laughing with each other. No one seemed to be in distress. No one seemed to be worried about potential danger. They were going about their lives as if there was absolutely nothing wrong. Those attitudes confused Kaoru, Kai and Rinally, for they were used to coming to a world whose need was innately obvious, like Tsenacommacah and Lumina Cross or became obvious after a while, like Edge and Atlantica.
This world seemed absolutely at peace.
No one even bothered to give them a second glance as they wandered around, either. No one stopped them from wandering around the city, not even a concerned citizen or a guard. The snippets of conversation they heard drove home the fact that they had arrived on a world that didn’t need their Keyblades or magic. The city, Esthar, was completely safe, completely sealed off from the outside by a shield that camouflaged the city and surrounding land from unfriendly eyes. And if anything did happen, then the President would take care of it.
“I wonder if we should go visit the President.” Kaoru wondered aloud as he and Kai stood outside the shopping district, waiting for Rin. When she had spotted an equipment shop - and all the shops were simply terminals, with no humans running them at all - she immediately wanted to find a new staff for her to use. She had been at the shop for some time, but Kaoru didn’t want to rush her. Only she knew what she needed, after all. “Maybe he might be able to give us a clue as to why we’re here.”
“I don’t know. He might not have any idea.” Kai responded.
“But it probably wouldn’t hurt to see him.”
“Probably not. But remember, Esthar is cut off from the outside world. How are we going to explain to him how we got here? We’re not natives.”
“Right. He may not know about Sora.”
“There are thousands of worlds out there. Sora might not have visited them all, or if he did, he may have kept his presence concealed.” Kai looked up as a flying disk soared by in a tube above their heads. “If we can keep a low profile too, it might be easier for us to move around. Easier for us to discover what it is that we’re needed here for.”
“Maybe it isn’t Esthar that needs us, but somewhere outside of here.” Kaoru tilted his head back to look at the greyish sky above the city. It glimmered slightly, proving it wasn’t the real sky but the shield that kept Esthar safe from outsiders.
“Maybe.” Kai agreed.
Rinally finally appeared, looking disappointed and completely without a staff. She joined her friends and sighed, fluffing her pink hair with her hands.
“Didn’t find anything?” Kaoru asked.
“Oh, I found a lot. But nothing was right. I didn’t feel anything when I held them. If a witch doesn’t have a connection to her staff, then she can’t use them as a focus to cast her spells. And it would take too long for me to forge that connection to a new staff. Besides, we don’t have any money. I wouldn’t be able to buy one even if I found a proper staff.”
“So what are you going to do?”
Rinally shrugged. “I don’t know. Thanks to Lorne, I got a feel for finer control of my spells. I’m not afraid that I’ll destroy half a city block anymore if I use a high level spell. Hopefully, I won’t have to cast something that big while we’re here.”
“Hopefully,” Kai agreed.
“So, did you guys decide where we ought to go now?” Rinally asked as they started walking again.
“We thought about introducing ourselves to the President, but decided that would be a bad idea, considering Esthar is supposed to be cut off from the outside world.” Kaoru said.
“Oh, yeah, right. Because we don’t know for sure the President knows about the Keyblades and the Heartless, and if we let him know what we’re doing here, we might mess up the balance of this world.”
“We’re here for a reason,” Kai pointed out, “which means there’s something going on here. Just because the city is in peace now doesn’t mean it won’t be later on. It’s just like what we had to do in Edge. We need to find out why we’re here.”
Rinally made an agreeing noise. “But we can’t just go around asking anyone.”
“No, but we can find out information on our own. In a city this advanced, there has to be an information desk, or somewhere people go to find out news.” Kaoru said. “Paradise City had cafés like that. People could go there and watch news programs that listed different events going on in the city and surrounding towns.”
“Then let’s go see if we can find a place like that.” Kai gestured, and led his friends down the street, taking a turn down another street that brought them to a main thoroughfare.
They explored the city until their feet hurt and their legs felt like jelly. The night had also deepened, and people were starting to head to their homes. They finally found a sheltered underpass where they could rest without being spotted by the night guards that wandered the city or by anyone passing by. They shared a small meal and talked about subjects that didn’t have anything to do with Rin’s missing family, Hiromu, Tae, Ennio, or the Brotherhood. They didn’t even talk about Sora or Riku or the Keyblades or the Heartless. Even Kai laughed at some of the things that were said. For a little while, they could pretend that they were normal teenagers who were defying the rules by staying out past curfew, and each one of them slept soundly without needing to fear that they would be attacked if one of them didn’t stay up to keep watch for enemies.
When the sun rose the next morning, the three of them got up and started their search again. It was more fruitful this time, as the people they passed in the streets were more than willing to give the three teenagers directions when they asked if there was a place they could find news on recent events. They found themselves standing outside the Presidential Palace, staring up at the massive building with apprehensive looks on their faces.
“So,” Kaoru started, “do we go in and see if anyone’s willing to help us?”
“I much prefer standing out here looking like a bunch of lost tourists.” Rinally quipped.
Kai sighed. “We aren’t going to learn anything if we don’t ask. We might as well go in and see if there’s anything we can learn. We don’t have to volunteer any information. For all the President knows, we’re here from one of Esthar’s schools doing a project.”
“Do you think this place has schools?”
“Rin, everywhere has schools.” Kai said dryly.
“Then let’s go in,” Kaoru said, “and let’s see what we can learn.”
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn