Chapter Text
Kairi pulled the door to the large castle open.
At first, she thought a million-watt flashbulb was shining at her from inside the entry hall, but then she realized it was just the stark contrast of the bright, white interior against the dark night outside.
“What’s the holdup?” a voice quacked behind her.
“Oh, sorry,” She stepped inside, letting Donald and Goofy come in behind her.
“You really think the King’s here?” Goofy wondered, looking around them.
“I dunno...” Kairi said, sighing. “I just... I think this is where we need to be.”
“Really?” Goofy looked at Kairi, “Cause I was thinking the same thing.”
“Me too!” Donald quacked.
“Huh,” Kairi thought about it, “Well... I guess that’s an even better reason to keep moving forward!”
She and Donald turned to go further inside but Goofy turned around.
“Shouldn’t we close the door fir--Kairi!”
Kairi jumped around at Goofy’s shout.
Coming in the open door was a figure in a long black cloak. Their hood was up, darkening their features.
“Welcome, Princess, to Castle Oblivion.” The voice was light but definitely male and a little threatening, but not the same kind of menacing as Ansem’s was.
“Thank you, I think,” Kairi tried to get a glimpse under the hood, but some sort of magic prevented anything other than a vague nose and chin outline from being visible. “You were the one at the crossroads, right? Before we got here.”
“Indeed,” The figure stepped closer. Goofy and Donald summoned their weapons, but Kairi waited, unsure if this man was friend or foe yet.
“What did you mean, to find is to lose and to lose is to find?”
The figure didn’t answer, taking a step closer instead.
It was curious. Ever since she had become aware of her power as a Princess of Heart, Kairi could sense light and darkness in a person. Goofy and Donald radiated light while darkness had seeped out of Riku, nearly bursting out once Ansem possessed him. Sora was a bight radiating light, like the sun.
But from this man? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
It disturbed her, maybe even more than the darkness did.
Something about the man must have disturbed Donald as well, for the duck brandished his staff and shouted. “Thunder!”
Nothing happened.
Kairi and Goofy looked over while Donald shook his staff as if he could jiggle the magic loose. “Thunder!”
Still nothing.
“Fire!” Donald tried. “Blizzard!”
Kairi was suddenly relieved that nobody needed a heal spell at the moment.
“From the moment you stepped in here, you forgot every ability and spell you ever knew,” the figure said.
Kairi may not have been able to sense any darkness from his voice, but she could hear the smugness, and that put her on edge anyway. She summoned her keyblade, trying to silently cast her own fire spell, but like Donald, it didn’t work.
“Kairi!”
Kairi glanced up at Donald’s shout. The man was rushing towards her. She put her keyblade up to block.
The man ran-- through?--her.
Kairi shook her head, checking herself quickly for injuries. But outside of a slight sensation of dropping in her stomach, a usual indication that something was wrong, nothing seemed out of sorts.
“I just sampled your memories,” the figure stated. He held out a hand and a card suddenly appeared. He tossed it to Kairi who caught it easily.
She took a quick look at it, finding familiarity in the picture of buildings and lights. “Traverse Town?”
She glanced up but found that the figure had vanished.
“What?”
She looked down the corridor, finding a set of doors similar to the ones she had entered. Hesitantly, she walked up to the door and studied it. She gave it a push, then a pull but found that it wouldn't budge an inch. Donald and Goofy ran up to help her, but even together they couldn't open the door. The redhead even jumped back a few feet and tried to unlock it with her keyblade, but even that did nothing.
Kairi huffed and stood back. Why lead me here if you’re just gonna leave me trapped in the entryway?
She looked back at the card still in her hand. A slightly crazy thought came to her, but since nothing else was working, she decided to give it a try. She held the card up as high as it would go.
There was a glow the card, and suddenly, the doors opened. Donald, who had still been pushing, stumbled to the ground. Goofy stopped to help him while Kairi took a few cautious steps through the doors.
Blinking against the harsh light, Kairi found herself in the first district of Traverse Town. She turned to Donald and Goofy, only to find that they were no longer behind her.
“What? What’s going on?”