Kingdom Hearts 3: Sokai Prompt
It’s birthday week! :D I’m celebrating it by giving presents to all of you! Here’s some more prompts, coming to you as fast as I can write them out this week!
Prompts and commissions are open! But if you have submitted 3 prompt requests, please leave room for others to join in the fun too! <3
“So... this is where the keyblade wielders of the past called home.” Riku stepped into Scala Ad Caelum as the rest of the gang tagged along, all admiring it.
“Em, I’ve heard a lot about this place.” Aqua nodded, looking around, “It’s amazing. More than I could have imagined.”
Terra stepped into what looked like a decoratively designed city square, but noticed the circle format seemed more like a dueling field...
He summoned his keyblade, “I think I know what these symbols mean. Aqua, do you mind?” he smiled kindly to her as she was momentarily surprised by his request.
She looked at the symbols, walking towards him before stopping in realization at his request. “This is...” She nervously held her hand up to her chest.
“Heh, don’t worry. We don’t have to finish it. I just wanted to see how it’s really done.” Terra explained, comforting her second of hesitation.
“Wait, what is it?” Ventus came bounding up to them, but Aqua kindly gestured to the rings around the much larger tiles. “O-oh...” he stepped back, letting them occupy a circle. “But hey! Don’t leave us hanging.” He teased, putting his hands behind his head a moment as the others walked to watch around them.
Kairi was too distracted by the sights, but Sora stopped following the others to look back to her, “Huh?” He walked over to her, “Everything alright, Kairi?”
“Oh, yes.” she turned and nodded sweetly to him, then went back to marveling at the area. “It’s just... something seems... like I’ve been lost here before.”
He tilted his head, “Before?” The memory of finding all the pieces of her heart here in such a hurried time, panicking over if he was too late or not came back to his mind then.
He looked down, wondering if that feeling of ‘being lost’ was maybe related to that...
“Your heart... did wander here before.” He softly, almost unsure if he should say it, spoke out as Kairi turned her ear to him.
“Is that... what it is?” She smiled cheerfully to calm him and bent down so his lowered head could still see her eyes. “Don’t look so down, Sora. You did retrieve my lost heart again... for that, I’m really grateful.”
He leaned up and she joined him by walking towards the others who were forming a circle around Aqua and Terra. Placing her hands leisurely behind her and together, she lingered in her stride, waiting on Sora. “You’ve done that a lot lately for me... someday, I hope... to return the favor.” she nodded ahead of her, but then moved faster towards the others, as though not wanting to dive too deep on the topic just yet.
Sora watched her and smiled, thinking about all the times he has saved her before and flicked his nose, “Heh.” He felt confident then, but didn’t really know why...
Maybe it was because she acknowledged that he’s always been there for her... but he didn’t really give it too much thought. Right now wouldn’t be a good time to reflect on things anyway.
“What’s going on?” Donald quacked out, “I don’t see anything special about them.” He tapped his impatient duck foot that slapped against the ground a little too loudly to be polite.
Terra and Aqua nodded, deciding to not keep their ‘audience’ waiting too long.
“It’s an old tradition... or, um, well...” He gestured his hand out to explain, but seemed to trip up on his words as he looked to Aqua for assistance.
“The culture of the keyblade wielder has been lost for so long, it’s hard to explain but..” She gave him the nudge he needed, and turned to the others. “It’s a dance... and a battle... so to speak. But it’s all meaningful and creates a strong tie between two hearts... if completed properly, anyway.”
Terra continued, “In other words, Keyblade wielders would use this to form strong bonds between one another... but it was mostly done for rituals like-”
“It’s a wedding!” Ventus was on his hands and knees, looking at some symbols and seeing two keys shooting a white beam towards one heart. “If I’m reading this right, it connects two hearts into feeling like one, ultra powerful one!” he looked up at Aqua and Terra. “Terra! You rascal! What are you planning to do with Aqua!?”
Aqua shook her head, “It’s a powerful bond, but it’s different than--necessarily--a marriage.” she explained. “Although... many did perform the connecting of hearts through this ritual during their ceremonies... it can also be done with friends.”
“But... not likely.” Terra looked away and down to the ground, as though not really wanting to correct her. “Either way, I’ve only ever read about it in books. Wouldn’t it be exciting to see it actually done?”
“But not completed.” Aqua summoned her keyblade, “Right?” She cutely tilted her head to tease him, and he just gave her a slight scold with his eyes. “What? I thought it was funny.” She tried to joke, and Ventus laughed.
“Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a second, I haven’t memorized this yet.” Axel placed his finger to his forehead, pausing the explanation. “You’re both saying you’re--willingly, without restraint--going to try an ancient keyblade ritual you’ve never actually seen before... and are... hoping it doesn’t link your hearts infinitely together in some... ultra heart thing?” he shrugged, but Xion and Roxas just looked up to him, then to each other.
“Sounds fun.” Xion nodded.
“Yeah, let’s give it a go.” Roxas agreed, and the two walked into one of the other circles. “Axel, do you mind?” He gestured to him still being in the tiled circle.
“Wha... you... both of you!?” He crossed his arms, amazed they were going to try and follow along too. “Am I the only one seeing this possibly ending badly here!?”
He wildly gestured around to the others, and Sora looked to Kairi.
She didn’t say anything, but lightly looked to him as well...
“Count us in too, Terra.” Sora nodded to him, and offered Kairi his hand.
“Gworsh.” Goofy covered his mouth as he stepped back for the two, letting them pass him.
She giggled and took it without a second thought, as Riku folded his arms and shook his head. “Great, now you’ve got everyone pairing up.”
Terra and Aqua looked a little worried, hesitating as the two pairs summoned their keyblades. “A-Axel’s right. It is risky... And for novices it’s-” she held out her hand, hoping to dissuade them.
“We just won’t do the last step,” Roxas gave a confident look towards Aqua. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to see how it works, too.”
Goofy laughed, “This should be interesting, yehak!”
Donald’s impatience left him as he heard everything taking place, and pulled Goofy back to give them all more space. “Whha!! I gotta see this!”
“But we’re not even sure what the ‘one heart’ process really does. I think me and Aqua are more suited to discovering--through safer means--what they used to mean to keyblade wielders.” Terra didn’t really want to argue or convince anyone, but he did want to explain both him and Aqua’s reasonings.
“We’ll be fine!” Sora chimed up, then looked to Kairi, letting her take her place and situating himself where he saw Terra. “If we can’t keep up, we won’t activate the power, right?” He tilted his head, and Terra and Aqua both looked to each other in agreement, seeing some safety in that.
“That is true...” Aqua repeated in hopes that if they didn’t do it accurately, the process wouldn’t commence.
“You guys...” Terra shook his head, “Alright. Phase one.” He held his keyblade towards Aqua, and immediately, an air of seriousness took over the atmosphere.
Goofy and Donald looked to each other, Donald more pumped than Goofy’s worried expression before he seemed to concede that this was happening with the dangers and or not. “Be careful, Sora... Kairi, Xion... Roxas... and you guys too.” He slightly laughed again, but there was a bit of concern in his voice.
“Ahhh, they’ll be fine!” Donald waved a hand out, as though dismissing Goofy’s troubles.
Roxas and Sora, as though not really realizing it had already begun, scrambled to mimic Terra’s posture and placement as quickly as they could. They adopted the serious look and Xion had to hold in her laughter at it.
Aqua, surprisingly, took on a much more playful demeanor and swished her body to where her keyblade rested by her side, her wrist gently against her hip to let the keyblade linger out slightly towards Terra’s.
Kairi and Xion took an extra second to adjust themselves, but it was clear they weren’t as well coordinated as Aqua was masterfully demonstrating.
“We won’t make it easy for you... so if you don’t watch carefully, we’ll let you fall behind.” Although Aqua said that... it motivated the two girls, and they immediately rose their heads up, just as determined to match Terra’s expression as the boys were.
As though the world sensed the magic resonated in the three pairs hearts, sensing what they were going to do--the world began to hone it’s magic into one, central part of the square...
Lifting her leg, Aqua made the first move and followed the symbols, as though a rhythm of music was playing in her heart.
The second she moved, so did Xion and Kairi, and Terra remained still as stone.
“The first phase is to judge ones loyalty to your heart, it’s supposed to be aggressive, so don’t hold back.” Aqua, after a few gentle movements of turning her keyblade and up, seeming graceful in her light but long steps, suddenly swished it down with great power.
Again, the world resonated with power at the action.
“Prepare yourselves.” Terra smiled, and began to defend himself against her twirling hits and powerful slashes at him.
“A-ah!” Roxas wasn’t prepared for the harshness of the battle right off the bat, but braced himself as Xion came charging at him, then twirled to match Aqua.
Aqua slid her keyblade down Terra’s own and then jumped.
Following the pattern, he fell to a knee and helped her flip over him by giving her keyblade some support.
“Phase two,” He lowered both knees, “Technique and passion.”
Sora had seen Kairi in battle before, even joined her in it, but he was also awestruck at her following Aqua so naturally as he quickly tried to copy Terra and dropped to a knee, letting her cartwheel over him and then looking to see Terra on both knees. “What!?” He seemed shocked by that but even more so that Terra had one hand behind his back...
“Ahh..!” Sora quickly looked back to Kairi and watched the sparks as her Keyblade slammed into his own, she gave out a strong cry as she hit it.
Dodging more powerful hits, Roxas and Sora sweated slightly as they had to use one arm to block and their knees to continually adjust their upper-bodies to perfectly deflect the on-slaughter of hits.
Roxas squinted an eye closed when Xion jumped like Aqua into the air, and slammed down fiercely onto his own. “And this is to show loyalty?” Roxas gritted his teeth, impressed by how hardcore the keyblade wielders of the past were.
Axel whistled and folded his arms, “Or maybe... the girls were just that intense.” he nodded as if approving, but Riku just looked at him a moment, almost in a funny way.
“Or maybe, they all were. This is only the beginning, right?”
Ventus walked over to stand next to Riku, and hearing that, looked shocked and innocently startled at the possibility that this dueling dance could get more impressively complicated and difficult.
“Woah! I hadn’t thought of that!” He cupped his hands over his mouth to call out to his friends, “Don’t let up! Give it your all you guys!”
Feeling the burn, the boys were happy to see Terra--after bending his body back to dodge a sweeping strike, jump to his feet and begin to clang his keyblade over and over with hers in a swishing manner, but much lighter than an actual fighting force.
Roxas and Sora jumped to match, but Sora wobbled a bit.
Roxas flailed his arms but took a step back, making a mistake and falling on his rear. “Offph! Geez, Xion... you’ve really gotten stronger. Did you even hold back?” he rubbed his head as she came over to him, seeing he was alright and just stumbled, she placed a hand over her mouth.
“Hehe, I couldn’t resist the idea of making an effort.” She held out her hand and helped him up.
The power around their circle ceased... but the two continued to perform the ritual anyway, getting back into place and trying to catch up.
Sora... tilting as though he would fall... scooted his feet back to his center of gravity without moving off the symbol, and got up properly to his feet.
Kairi’s eyes blinked rapidly, impressed that he hadn’t fallen down, and nodded with an encouraging smile to not give up.
Sora looked to see Terra with both hands now on the keyblade, and quickly did the swishing motion to maneuver himself to the next phase, and Kairi followed suit.
“Technique, huh?” Sora raised a tempting eyebrow, as though getting into this, and Kairi giggled.
“Don’t hold back, I can take a hit.” She narrowed her eyes, not backing down.
Sora nodded, “Then I won’t look away!”
Terra’s moves sent sparks of magic over the tiles on the ground, the symbols each represented a type of magic that he summoned and shot towards Aqua. She was able to dodge but noticed that some of the symbols meant for her to simply block and not dodge. “Kairi!” she called, looking over to her after worrying that some of the magic might be too advanced for her to block.
But Kairi took them, and Sora didn’t miss a beat.
“Oh...” Aqua froze a moment, stunned by her determination and Sora’s trust in her abilities. ‘But she’s only just begun training...’ she thought to herself, before looking up at Terra swinging his keyblade down on her.
“Hmph!” she sprayed up some magic that he blocked, knocking him back.
“Phase 3...” Aqua took a deep breath, “Passion and stability...” she took her keyblade and, following Terra’s pace, linked the tips of their key’s protruding edges and fell back.
The power it took to maintain a steady swing of their bodies without either one misjudging the balance and having their partner fall to the ground was for more masterful arts than what Aqua or Terra thought the other two pairs could mimic.
But surprisingly... Xion and Roxas performed it perfectly, while Sora and Kairi took the pace a little slower and communicated more.
“And...” Sora began, making sure their keyblades were perfectly locked.
“Go..!” Kairi dipped back as did Sora, swinging themselves in the bend before immediately transitioning to the next step.
Standing as close as their keyblades to their bodies could allow, they came in and out, and then Sora took a strong stance and only swung Kairi on the linked keyblades.
“Wait... are they even watching Aqua and Terra anymore?” Ventus looked to see Xion and Roxas still a few seconds behind, but Sora and Kairi were perfectly synced with them now. “But they were falling behind before.”
Riku also watched,... before flinching back, “Hold on, I think they’ve figured out the symbols.”
Axel also looked amazed by that, “Wahhh? Come again!?” he leaned his full height out and forward, gesturing to Riku to explain before looking to see Sora scan the ground while firing out a magic attack, running to roll as Kairi countered with another magical attack.
They both healed--although no one was hurt--and then turned to attack the other.
Terra also turned his eyes to them, but being careful to match pace with Aqua as they started--what appeared to be--a more realer version of a keyblade duel. ‘They’ve been watching the symbols as well as us..? No...’
He spun to dodge a hit from behind before positioning himself to walk within the circle at the same timing as Aqua, their keyblades now pointing towards the other again. ‘They’re learning the patterns... the repeating signs... they’re...’
Sora and Kairi paused and stood directly across from the other, their keyblades still in one, fluid motion dancing as they twirled, tossed, and continued the actions more like a dance performance now.
Once stopped again, Aqua and Terra panted, but looked over to see Xion and Roxas lowering their keyblades, all eyes... were watching Sora and Kairi.
“They’re like... moving as one.” Ventus arched his eyes, watching as Aqua and Terra also lowered their keyblades.
‘They were learning with their hearts...’ Aqua studied them a moment before sighing, “That’s it, before the last step.” Aqua stopped, nodding to Terra that they should end here. “They certainly had an odd way of showing affection.”
Terra was still watching Sora and Kairi as they were also locked onto one another’s eyes, breathing to a steady pace and closed their mouths after catching their breaths.
“...Terra?” Aqua spoke out again.
“Huh?” Terra turned back to her, “Oh... right.” He looked shaken up, and seemed to adjust himself on his feet to remember himself. “The last phase would be to barely move the keyblades, but just enough to unlock the other’s heart. However, the process was described as having to be done at the exact same timing... much like how the ritual is done all at similar, but exact pacing...” He gestured to the circle and the symbols. “The phases bring you closer and closer to the center, however...”
Aqua continued, walking up to him, “The last phase is to separate you both again... before making your heart one.” She looked to the others, turning to them to make sure she had their attention...
The circle beneath them dimmed in power, before all but fading away. The last circle remaining still carried glowing light, barely traceable to the eye, but forming direct magic beneath Sora and Kairi’s ring.
She was still surprised Sora and Kairi were keeping their eyes fixated on one another, their keyblades never lowering.
“Umm...” she looked to them a moment, but continued, “When the hearts are shot at the same time, then they unlock together. When the two keyblade wielders placed a piece of them inside the other’s heart, something meaningful for the both of them that they share, then the two hearts become connected as though one.”
“Rumor has it that this meant they could feel the other, whether troubled or being threatened, and if one heart disappeared... the other would feel their partner departing.” He looked to Aqua, “But such a ritual has been forbidden now. Due to it’s emotionally scarring nature... to feel someone you care so deeply about dying... or even lose their heart...”
“It’s like feeling the darkness engulf you forever.” Aqua clutched her own heart, before looking to the others. “And that’s it. That’s all me and Terra wanted to experience. Just... how they did it.”
Sora watched Kairi’s eyes carefully...
Kairi never wavered in her intense stare... until she broke it with a smile.
Sora’s eyes lit up at it, and he closed his eyes to give her a returning, large grin.
“Umm... Sora?” Riku stepped forward, then looked to Kairi, unfolding his arms. “Kairi..?”
Axel watched their faces, then looked to their keyblades, “Oh no...” His hands on his hips fell... as the two keyblades slightly moved to the sides, and a beam of light pierced their hearts.
“Whha!!!” Donald scrambled his arms around as they fired out.
“Wait, hold on! Sora! Kairi!” Goofy held out his hand, almost moving into the circle but their hearts flew out before more could be done.
The two hearts, due to the power of the world suddenly blasting out from the circled tile, pulled the hearts together and for a split second... they were one in a flimsy line of lights from the circle.
Entering each other’s hearts, Kairi looked around Sora’s heart. “This does feel familiar.” she joked to herself, before forming out of light a paopu fruit, half bitten into. “My most treasured memory... and a promise I wouldn’t dare forget... that I made to you.” She closed her eyes, remembering the memory in a flash before letting the figurative image that was a piece of her heart fly into his stain-glass portrait...
The world burst to light again.
Sora walked into Kairi’s heart, admiring the stain-glass as he lightly bent down to touch it. “...Feels like its made of the same petals to your heart, Kairi.” He smiled at the thought, before leaning up and forming with light her Good Luck Charm: her Wayfinder.
“I have so many memories with you, Kairi... but this one holds the start of them all.” He gripped it tightly, placing a piece of his heart in it. “I know... that I won’t ever be apart from you anymore... I can feel what you feel too. You’ll never be lost from me again...” He found it hard to let go of... but soon... let it drift into her stain-glass portrait as well.
“-ra! ...Sora..! Sora, wake up!”, “Don’t do this to me!”, “Whah-hahah! You can’t leave us like this!”
Sora blinked his blurry eyes slowly open, “Ughh... Goofy? Riku..? Donald!” he pushed Donald up from him, seeing him about to go for CPR. He made sure his face was okay before kicking and flailing his arms out. “I’m fine, I’m fine! My heart’s still here, see?” He gestured to himself, showing he was fine.
He then looked around, and gently moved Goofy out of the way to see Kairi still passed out.
“Kairi!” He took off from the ground... but stumbled in his sudden weariness... “Ughh...”
Goofy, Donald, and Riku both held him up.
“It’s alright, whatever that light was, it brought your hearts together and then parted them again.” Riku explained, then looked over to Kairi, “Both of your hearts were brought back to their bodies... neither of you disappeared.”
“Your hearts were like- WAHHHA, then the light was like SWAHOOOHOOO, even before you hit the ground it was putting them back like WHAH-WHAH!” Donald animatedly demonstrated the process of what they saw. Although it had been seconds to them, Sora felt like it had been a bit longer than just that...
“Before we hit the ground..?” Sora tried to get back up, and finally found the strength to do so.
He felt his heart, but then something separate from his heart.
Something that was woozily waking up.
“Ah! Kairi.” he looked down.
“It’s alright, Sora. I’m sure she’ll wake up soon.” Riku took one of his arms and placed it over his shoulder.
“No... I mean... she’s waking up.” without even looking at her, Sora knew she was stirring, and Riku looked up to see Kairi lean up, clutching her head and then her heart.
She looked to Sora before everyone began asking her questions.
Donald hugged Sora’s legs, crying, “You’re no longer a solo half-pint like the rest of us!”
“Golly... Ya-hak! You two are kinda like old-time married then, right?” Goofy seemed to be taking it well...
“Ma... Married?” Sora’s face suddenly turned red. “Ah! I forgot about that!”
“Wha?!” The three looked amazed at him.
“That’s the part you forgot?” Riku looked more shocked than the other two.
As Kairi got up, Aqua immediately began to drill her. “What do you feel? Are you hurt? How’s your heart? Is your body feeling connected to it still?”
“I-I’m fine.” Kairi lightly nodded and smiled to her questions. “I just... I feel Sora’s embarrassed by something.” she tried to look over their shoulders, but couldn’t see Sora over the mass of people.
For the rest of the day, Terra and Aqua informed Sora and Kairi of their reckless behavior and what it had done. Now, they would feel the presence and emotional standing of the other, and what kinda toll that could bring to them...
However, Sora and Kairi kept wanting to not be parted. The urge to hold hands--just to feel close again--was a lot to handle while everyone kept asking them questions.
The ritual hadn’t been done in centuries but...
Sora and Kairi looked to each other, and smiled sweetly.
That didn’t stop them from bringing it back.
“Crazy kids.” Axel rubbed his hand into his hair, before noticing something was off, and looked under his arms to realize that Roxas and Xion weren’t there again. “Wait a second... Ah! Don’t you dare! Get back here!” he stomped his foot down as he looked to see Xion and Roxas practicing the ritual again, trying to get it perfect this time around.
“Oh, come on! Give me a break here...” He slumped his shoulders down in front of him before pulling himself up into a pitiful laugh, “Having a heart is a strange thing indeed...” he went over and scooped the two up as they tried to protest, and brought them back with the rest of the group, not willing to hear their complaints.
