One Change - A KH "What If?" (DISCONTINUED/MOVED)

358(11)

Day 215

Ikrux fell on the ground with a groan of anger.

Luxord stood over him saying, "it is just as the cards predicted. I win yet again."

Ikrux's hand shook as he held his Soul Eater.

He had lost to Luxord five times.

"Well, did your cards predict this?"

Ikrux leapt up, focusing his energy into his swing, using a darkness slash.

The amount of force was enough to knock Luxord back a step.

Luxord waved his hand of cards, saying, "another round?"

Ikrux nodded.

Luxord snapped his fingers, and cards dispersed around Ikrux.

"Remembered the rules?"

"Find the one with you in it, and I win." Ikrux stated.

"Shuffle!"

The cards rotated around Ikrux, facing away from him.

It made him dizzy as he tried focusing on one, so he looked up until the sound of whirring stopped.

Ikrux silently prayed that he'd payed enough attention.

He approached the cards slowly, one by one in his battle stance.

If he were to attack three, they'd shuffle again. So he had to pick his battles wisely.

His eyes darted from card to card.

Surely Luxord's would be different than the others?

He saw one move, and slashed at it.

It only shook and vanished.

Ikrux groaned. How long was this gonna take?

He decided to take a slower approach, and watched them all from his spot.

One moved, and he hit it with a blast of darkness.

But it wasn't the card with Luxord.

Ikrux decided to watch how they all moved.

And every time it cycled, one stood out to him.

He approached it ever so slowly.

And just as he was about to hit it, he heard:

"Shuffle!"

Ikrux lowered his sword and stomped his foot in anger.

The pain jolted up his leg, stinging him worse than his loss. But he didn't really care.

And then, he said the three words he didn't want to.

"I give up!"

"Come on, I was really rooting for you."

Ikrux whirled around on his heels to see Roxas standing in a corner of the room.

"You can't seriously be giving up? To Card Shark?"

Roxas's nickname for Luxord made Ikrux giggle.

"There we go, Ikrux is back." Roxas smiled. "Now, go try again."

"But I've lost six times now." Ikrux argued.

"Ouch. But are you gonna let a few losses get 'cha down?"

"Well, wouldn't you be down too?"

"Yes." Roxas crossed his arms and leaned against the white wall. "But also no. I saw you didn't use your powers a whole lot out there. Use them. You have 'em for a reason."

"But what if I make a mistake again?" Ikrux's arms drooped more.

"Then I'll be here to bring you back. I'm not watching for fun. Well, I am, but I'd also appreciate seeing you beat Luxord."

"Alright." Ikrux felt a huge spark of motivation go through him.

Roxas had his ways of doing that.

They both balanced each other out.

"I'll do it for you." Ikrux said with a smile.

The way Roxas stared at him made him break their eye contact and reproach the now reformed Luxord.

"Clearly you fail to realize what I've been trying to teach you." Luxord didn't bother to look at Ikrux when he approached him. He just stared at his hand of cards, moving some of them.

"I don't understand. 'Teach me'?" Ikrux asked.

"Patience is key to a good fight. Without patience, you might as well be giving up."

Everything clicked in Ikrux's mind.

"So, by sparring with me, and redoing the same exercise over and over, you were trying to teach me patience?"

Luxord nodded. "If you'd like, we can go again. Just don't take too long."

Ikrux nodded, and as Luxord dispersed amongst the cards, he caught eye with Roxas, and the latter winked at him.

The wink gave him an odd amount of confidence, and an idea.

Ikrux waited until all the cards shook as a sign that he could start his trial again, and then took a deep breath.

He went to swing at the air, and then used the small amount of momentum to launch himself into the air.

As he did, he focused on the force of how he was gonna swing.

Ikrux headed down, sword first. And just as he was about to hit the ground, he pulled his arm back, and hit it hard, causing a massive impact.

All the cards were thrown up and dispersed. Luxord popped out of one of them.

As he picked himself up, Ikrux said, "you didn't exactly specify the rules."

"I assume this is the work of your friend." Luxord said dismissively. "As I stated previously, patience is key. You'll get nowhere like that."

"Hold on." Roxas said out of nowhere. "From what I heard earlier, you only told him to find you among the cards. There wasn't anything about patience until a few moments ago."

Ikrux tried to speak, but Roxas kept talking over him.

"So, as far as you're concerned, he did beat you."

Luxord seemed at a loss for words for a while. "Well- the point of the lesson was patience."

As Roxas tried to speak this time, Ikrux cut him off.

"Just one more round. And I'll focus on the lesson this time." He said.

Roxas looked at him like he was crazy, but Ikrux winked at him.

"If you say so." Luxord sighed.

Roxas pulled Ikrux aside, asking, "in case you forgot, we have to leave for ice cream soon."

"I'll make this quick."

Roxas smiled, and for an uncomfortably long moment, stared at Ikrux with a strange look in his eyes.

Roxas snapped his gaze away and said, "sorry. But you better make it quick." He stepped back into the corner, staring off into space.

Ikrux shook off the weird feeling he had and cleared his head.

It was time to beat Luxord at his own game.

Before they started, Roxas shouted, "go beat Card Shark!"