When Darkness Turns to Light

Our Mission

Chapter Thirty: Our Mission

Sora opened his eyes one at a time, bringing focus to the roof of Chamber Some-Number-or-Other. He moaned, bringing one of his hands up to wipe his eyes, and yawned. Somehow, despite having viewed Hikari's Dive into the Heart like watching a movie, he felt relieved, lighter. As the saying went, "the heart's a heavy burden."

The brunette sat up and looked over at Hikari, who was also sitting up; she looked different, and probably would have been practically unrecognizable if he had not witnessed the inner workings. The change was both mild and drastic.

Her hands, which she examined using gentle grey-eyes, were fair-skinned like her brother's, as opposed to the pallid, ivory tone she once sported. Golden blonde locks spilled over her shoulders and jaw, giving the illusion that she was brighter than before. The purple markings around her eyes were faded, but still present.

A glint between locks of her hair drew his attention; shuriken were hooked to her ears by clips like those used by mountain climbers. Her ensemble was edgier, less conservative than it was in the past. A high-collared, deep red jacket with sleeves rolled up to her elbows remained unzipped and did not bear any sort of logo or emblem. She wore beneath it a pink top that had one strap styled like a belt that buckled just over the inner side of her left breast. Between the trim of the top and the bottom of her breasts was simple pink fishnet, so one could see her belly button. The mini-skirt she wore had slits on either side, was colored deep orange, and had navy blue on the trims; black spanx covered her thighs. She also had knee-high, black zori.

The kunoichi smiled at Sora and closed her hand over the stone of the First Hokage's necklace, which was around her neck. Despite the little bit of anxiety she had harbored, it was definitely nice to feel her heart beat again.

Donald and Goofy were elated to see the duo's rising; relief was evident in their widespread grins. Both teens assured them that they were okay and explained briefly what had occurred within; what was understood and the mysteries. Hikari left out the part about her feelings for Riku, not eager to be ragged on for the matter, and explained that most of her feelings were intact; she simply would be able to experienced more now. "I still think you guys are morons a lot of the time."

Before Donald could fume in reply, Goofy raised an inquiry, holding his chin. "So, uh, hold on a minute . . . you mean you have your heart now? It's not just a 'brink'-uh, 'rink'-or . . . ?"

"'Link.'" She glanced to the side. "I'm still a little heartless. . . . Like I said, my heart broke for some reason, and I guess one of the pieces got lost when my brother gave them to Sora. I still have to look for it, before I'm complete." With a small shrug, she added, "I've been looking for it all along, so it's not like I've really added to the list of things to search for, but . . . if Naruto doesn't have it, or Sora, I have no leads."

Almost reluctantly, Donald grumbled an idea with his arms crossed. "Maybe the King would have an idea."

She stood up and entertained the idea. "Mickey-His Majesty-did start learning a lot of things, but I don't think he learned that much. Ansem was the researcher on hearts. Maybe in his reports we'll find something on broken hearts and their pieces."

Abruptly, she had what others would describe as a "bad feeling." She had a chill set in her spine, one that made her shiver and look off deeper into Monstro. She was not sure exactly what this feeling was-paranoia? Deeply unsettling as it was, she did not think it was a figment of her imagination. . . .

A loud, lonely howl echoing through the whale's chambers confirmed this feeling to be of viable concern. Hikari ran out of the chamber toward the stomach, where the howl seemed to have originated. Sora and the rest were not a beat behind her, as concerned as she. It was possible that the howl had been voiced because the creature was victim to a Heartless-one like the Parasite Cage that had run out on them.