“So, you’ve defeated Axel. I owe you my thanks, Sora.”
Marluxia was waiting for them in the center of the hall, his grip still tight on Naminé’s arm.
Sora stood ready to fight with the Keyblade. “Marluxia!”
He laughed under his breath. “The Keyblade’s power. How I’ve longed to make it my own… And then I will control the organization!”
“Forget it! Let Naminé go!”
Behind Sora, Donald and Goofy held their weapons ready, too.
“Yeah! You better!”
“Ya shouldn’t be so mean to girls!”
“Oh, but so long as I have her, you stand no chance of winning.” Marluxia shoved her away from him and smirked. “Naminé, erase Sora’s memory!”
Her eyes flew open and she turned to face him. “But if I do that—” Then, she looked at Sora and hung her head.
There’s no way she’ll do that…
“That’s right,” Marluxia crooned. “If you force out all the memories you planted there, his whole memory will be shattered—along with his heart. Just like that puppet.”
Naminé glared up at him.
“The courage in your eyes is so charming—but you can’t defy me. Who was it who took you in when you were so alone?”
Her narrow shoulders trembled.
“Well, I’d have preferred him in one piece, but he can be rebuilt—more to my liking with some time. Do it, Naminé. Erase his memory.”
“…No.” She stared straight at Marluxia, her voice unwavering. “Everything Sora knew about me was a lie. I deceived him and he forgave me. How could I destroy his heart?! I won’t do it! I don’t care what happens to me. I won’t hurt Sora!”
“In that case…” Marluxia raised his hand.
“Do it, Naminé!” Sora cried. “I don’t care! You can erase my memory!”
“But—” Naminé looked at Marluxia and Sora in turn.
“Just do it! Erase my memories, destroy my heart—it doesn’t matter. I promised I’ll always protect you!”
I promised. I’ll keep my promise no matter what.
I’ll protect Naminé no matter what.
Even if my memory’s gone—it’ll be okay.
“Please, just trust me!” he yelled in earnest.
“Sora…” Naminé screwed up her face, her eyes filling with tears.
“I don’t need any memories to take on somebody like Marluxia!”
“That’s right! And even if Sora forgets it all, Goofy and I won’t forget!” Donald added, brandishing his wand.
“Uh-huh! Donald ’n’ me can remember everything for Sora!” Goofy winked at Naminé.
“See,” said Sora, “I’ll have all my friends’ memories, so I can piece my own together again!”
Marluxia snorted in derision. “Ignorant fool. When Naminé uses her powers to erase your memory, you’ll be nothing but an empty husk! Your heart will no longer feel or care about anything! Just like that pathetic imitation of your Riku!”
Another voice rang out. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
Riku appeared with a dark flash and slashed out at Marluxia.
“It can’t be—!” Marluxia cried as he fell to his knees.
“Riku!” Sora ran to him.
He didn’t turn around to reply, “No. Just an imitation.”
He pointed his sword at Marluxia again.
“You’re a shell—a husk who had everything taken! Everything!”
“What did I ever have to lose in the first place? Both my body and my heart are fake. But there’s one memory I’ll keep—even if it was just a lie! Whether it was a phantom promise or not…I will protect Naminé!”
“Riku…!” Sora stood beside him and likewise held the Keyblade ready in front of Marluxia.
That determination to protect Naminé—it was the same feeling as Sora’s. So it didn’t matter whether this was the real Riku or not.
We only want to protect Naminé.
“Imbeciles…!” Marluxia got to his feet. “You would knowingly shackle your heart with a chain of memories born of lies? You would cast aside your heart’s freedom?!”
Pale pink flower petals began to drift down, swirling into shape—until an enormous scythe materialized from them.
“You turn from the truth because your heart is weak… And you will never defeat me!” He swung the scythe at Sora and Riku.
“Ngh—!” Riku managed to block it. “Sora, now!”
At his cue, Sora leaped into the air to bring the Keyblade down on Marluxia’s head. But he raised the scythe in time to ward off the blow.
“That’s not all I’ve got!” Sora jumped up again. “Donald, Goofy!”
“Firaga!” Donald waved his wand, launching a huge fireball at Marluxia.
Goofy came running up behind him, shield out—only to find his vision obscured with pale pink.
“Hyuck?” He stood confused and a storm of flower petals tore through the hall.
“Look out!” Riku dove for Naminé, shielding her with his body, and picked her up to jump out of the way.
The flower storm extinguished Donald’s fireball and threw Sora and Goofy back against the wall.
“Ouch…” Sora somehow got back on his feet, but Marluxia was already there with his scythe. “Augh!”
“Sora!”
He went sprawling again. Goofy ran to his side and gave him a healing potion.
Riku left Naminé hidden behind a pillar and lunged at Marluxia, his sword aiming for the head. The scythe knocked his blow aside once more and flung Riku against the wall.
“I can’t even hit him…”
“You’re only a replica, after all… You’ll never strike a blow against me!”
Marluxia raised his hands and another flurry of pink petals filled the hall.
“Whoa!” Sora, Donald, and Goofy scrambled to take shelter behind pillars.
“How do we hit him?!” yelled Donald. The moment they tried, they’d be blown away by a flower storm.
“Don’t lose your cool—there has to be a way,” Riku murmured in reply. Then he charged at Marluxia. “Sora, now!”
“Wha…?”
“Trust me! C’mon!”
“Okay!” Sora hurtled after him.
Marluxia had only to wait for them to come into range before swinging that terrible scythe. A shock wave rang through the hall—but Riku blocked it. “What?!”
“Jump, Sora!”
At Riku’s cue Sora jumped into the air and swung the Keyblade at Marluxia’s head.
“Donald! Let’s have some magic!” Riku called.
“Right— Firaga!” Donald chased Sora’s blow with a fireball.
“Goofy! This way!”
Goofy ran in to join Riku. Having knocked aside the Keyblade, Marluxia raised his scythe higher to ward off the fireball—and then Goofy was there. He rammed with his shield, leaving Marluxia’s defenses open.
“Sora! Now!”
Sora and Riku both launched themselves at Marluxia again, and both their weapons struck him at once.
As soon as Sora felt the impact in the Keyblade, Marluxia’s body turned to a cloud of flower petals—which whirled about and finally scattered.
“Is he…gone?” Goofy panted.
“Looks like it.” Sora grinned and gave Riku a high five.
Donald jumped in triumph. “We did it!”
“Now we can get our memories back!” Goofy smiled at Naminé, who came out from behind her pillar.
“No… Not yet.” She shook her head.
“She’s quite right. What you destroyed was only an illusion of me.”
In the back of the room in front of the big door, flower petals swirled together.
“Wak!” Donald fumbled and gripped his wand.
The petals coalesced into a humanoid shape—which became Marluxia.
“So what!” Riku rushed at him, swinging his sword, but Marluxia only disappeared in another cloud of petals.
“Tch. Another imitation!”
<
br /> A single petal drifted down and turned into a card. The illustration on it was a riot of petals.
“I guess we have to use this to keep going… Does that mean the real Marluxia is through there?” Sora picked up the card and turned to Naminé.
“Yes,” she replied with a tiny nod.
“I knew it. I can feel his power…like it’s going to explode any minute.” Sora looked at the door. Some terrible energy emanated from behind it—terrible enough that he wasn’t sure they could win against it.
“Then, we gotta do something before it goes off!” said Goofy, though he sounded as cheerful as ever.
“Let’s go, Sora!” Donald waggled his wand, impatient.
“Yeah…” Sora looked at Riku and Naminé. “Riku… You protect Naminé.”
Riku lowered his sword and blinked. His voice came out small. “You don’t…mind?”
Sora only smiled. “Should I?”
“All right.” Riku turned to Naminé and nodded.
She looked at Sora, who had already turned to go. “Don’t forget your promise.”
“I know. I’ll keep it!”
They had to beat Marluxia so Naminé could be free. And so they could get their memories back.
“Sora! C’mon!” said Goofy.
Sora nodded resolutely and held the card up to the door.
He ran and ran through the world of darkness.
I have to go. Quickly now. I promised I’d be there.
The card glowed faintly as he went.
He could see the light within the darkness. He had to keep sight of it.
Riku’s there—I’m sure of it.
King Mickey kept running through the dark.
Through the door was a world of gloom.
Not darkness—but not light, either. Only a strange drifting space greeted the trio.
“Gawrsh, I wonder where Marluxia could be?”
The moment Goofy stepped inside, a torrent of flower petals swirled.
“This is the world of nothingness where all hearts cease to exist—and your hearts, too, will scatter and perish in the emptiness!”
Marluxia’s voice rang out in the gray gloom. They stood ready to fight, facing down an enormous sort of winged mecha with two cruel scythes, in which Marluxia sat looking down over them, with outsized petals fluttering behind him.
“Waaak!” Donald flailed furiously. “A mecha?! That’s not fighting fair!”
“Perhaps so—and you will learn what it means to defy me!” As Marluxia spoke petals scattered every which way.
“Ack!” Sora tried to dodge, but the petals were everywhere, and each one was as sharp as a tiny blade. He knocked them away with the Keyblade and ran in under Marluxia’s mecha—the Specter—and slashed out at its right-side scythe.
Metal struck metal and the scythe fell a little bit. Sora kept on attacking it.
“Hey, wait for me! Blizzaga!” Donald blasted his magic at both the scythes. “Firaga! Thundaga!”
He let out a barrage of sorcery. Behind him, Goofy used a healing potion.
“Take this.” The right scythe came down, and the shock wave knocked Sora back.
“Ouch…”
“You okay?!” Goofy dashed to Sora’s side and gave him a healing potion.
“Thanks, Goofy!” Sora jumped to his feet and got under the Specter again—only for it to float up out of reach.
“You fools—you can never understand our agony…!” The Specter dove.
“Wa-waaak!” Donald, still firing off spells, took a blunt hit from the mecha and fell back.
“Well, what do you know about Naminé and Riku?! They’re hurting, too!” Sora hopped onto the Specter while it was close to the ground and struck at Marluxia himself.
“Ngh…!”
“Sora! We broke the scythe!” Goofy called from below.
“What pathetic fools…”
“We’re smarter than you think!”
The great calyx petals that flared behind Marluxia detached and shot off like missiles.
“Wak!” Donald cried out from under the Specter, where Sora couldn’t see.
“Why, you…!” Sora jumped higher again to bring the Keyblade down on Marluxia. Petals swarmed to defend him.
Atop the Specter, the wind blew fiercely, and whirling pink petals obscured Sora’s vision. Marluxia stood with a cruel smile in the midst of the storm.
“If we had the power of the Keyblade…”
“Well, you won’t get it! I’m not gonna let you use me!” Sora dug the Keyblade into the mecha’s surface. “Donald! Goofy!”
At his call they leaped into the air.
“Let’s do this together!”
Donald and Goofy landed beside him, wand and shield at the ready—and a glow surrounded the trio.
“—What is this?!” Marluxia shielded his eyes. The Keyblade gave off a tremendous blaze of light.
The flower petals, the Specter, and Marluxia—all were swallowed up in the light.
“No—how can—ah, so this is the power of the Keyblade…!”
At last he faded away into the light.
“Did we get him?!”
As if the light was the only thing protecting them, when they fell back to the ground the gloomy world began to rumble. Not light nor darkness… A world of nothing at all, and it was making a terrible noise.
“We better get out of here!” shouted Donald.
In the distance they could see a faint swirl of light. “That way!” cried Sora, and they ran.
“D’you think we really beat him?” Goofy worried.
“That doesn’t matter now—we gotta run!” Donald snapped.
“It’s all right. We beat him.” Sora looked at the Keyblade in his hand.
“The power of the Keyblade…” What did Marluxia and the others want with it? What was the organization trying to do?
“There’s the way out!” Goofy jumped into the light. Donald followed and then Sora.
Behind them the world of nothingness was being washed over with blank white. A single flower petal drifted down, sparked into light, and then was gone.
“Sora!” Naminé cried as he practically fell through the door.
“Hi, Naminé.” Sora smiled a little bashfully and looked back at the door. The Keyblade began to shine. “Huh?!”
It moved of its own accord to point at the door. Then, a beam of light shot from it and materialized into a Keyhole.
“What’s going on?!” Donald shouted, and just then they heard a clicking sound—the Keyhole being locked. The light faded.
“Gawrsh, what was that…?” said Goofy.
Sora shrugged. “I don’t know what’s happening anymore, either.”
Riku was next to Naminé. Sora went to him. “You okay, Riku?”
“I’m not Riku. I’m a fake. I can’t remember why I was created or where or when… All that’s inside of me is memories of you and Naminé.” He shook his head. “But I know they aren’t real.”
Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at one another.
If he knew that he wasn’t the real Riku… Knowing for a fact that his memories were lies… That had to be awful.
“Say, Naminé, can’t you use your magic to get Riku’s memory back to normal?” Goofy wondered timidly.
“Well…I…,” she started, but then only hung her head miserably.
“It’s all right. I’ll deal.” Riku began to walk away.
“Wait!” Sora chased him. “Who cares if someone else made you? You’re you and nobody else. You have your own heart inside of you. Those feelings and memories are yours and yours alone. They’re special!”
Just like the memories I have of Naminé are still special… Those memories must be staying with him because they’re precious, too.
“You’re a good guy, Sora,” he said without looking back. “I don’t have to be the real Riku to see how real your feelings are. That’s enough for me.”
Riku made a small sound, and Sora couldn’t tell whether it wa
s laughter or the opposite.
But…right now, it’s true that we’re friends, Sora thought. There’s nothing false about my feelings.
“Riku!”
When Sora called his name he only began to run…farther and farther away.
He murmured it again but didn’t try to follow. He could only watch Riku go.
After Riku ran out of the hall, he had no idea where to go. He only wanted to get away from that place where everyone else was real.
He stopped running and stared at his feet.
This body of mine is fake…and this feeling, too…
“Hey there, Riku.”
He looked up. “…Axel.”
“Say, don’t you want to become the real thing?” said Axel, smirking.
The real thing. The weight of truth he craved so badly.
Riku—the replica—silently nodded.
Sora stood again by Naminé’s side.
“So Riku left, huh…?” Goofy said sadly.
“Yeah.” Sora nodded and looked at Naminé. She seemed downhearted, too.
They’d defeated Marluxia and saved her, but she couldn’t be happy about it.
Donald broke the dismal silence. “Can we get our memories back?”
Naminé looked up. “Yes. Just because you can’t remember something doesn’t really mean that it’s gone.”
“What d’ya mean?” said Goofy, puzzled.
“When you remember one thing, another memory comes back with it, and then another and another, right? Our memories are connected. All those pieces are linked together like they’re in a chain…and that’s what keeps our hearts together. I don’t really erase any memories—I just take apart the links and rearrange them. So you still have all your memories.”
Jiminy Cricket popped out from Sora’s pocket and hopped down. “Then, you can put ’em back together?”
Memories linked together…, Sora thought. But even though I remember that girl’s face, I still can’t remember her name. If it isn’t gone, why can’t I remember it?
“I can…,” Naminé replied. “But first, I have to take apart the chains of the memories that I made. After that, I have to gather up the fragments of memories scattered across each of your hearts and reconnect them. It might take a while. But I think it’ll work.” Then her expression brightened. “No—it will work. I’m sure. It’s my turn to look after you.”
“Okay.” Sora smiled back. “We trust you!”
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories The Novel (light novel) Page 18
