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

358(19)

Day 349

Roxas opened his eyes to see a silhouette standing over him. He jolted, sitting up. Surprisingly, he didn't scream. After a moment, he realized it was Ikrux, though he had taken a step back.

"Morning!" The latter greeted him with a smile, and that smile seemed to light up the entire room. Roxas sleepily smiled back, rubbing his eyes. The leather on his gloves didn't exactly feel good on his eyelids, but he had to deal with it.

"Why are you in my room?" Roxas asked sleepily.

That earned him a light bonk on the head. He looked at Ikrux with a questioning expression.

"Did you forget? We only do it every day." Ikrux smirked lightly. "We hafta go report to Larxene."

"Oh. Right." How did Roxas forget? He stretched his arms up, then threw off his covers and swung his legs over the edge of his bed. He stretched again, this time longer. As he stretched, Ikrux watched. Roxas winked jokingly at him, and then laughed as he stumbled.

Roxas got off his bed and followed Ikrux down the hallway to the Grey Area. The walk felt longer today, which was.. strange.

"Good morning, Larxene." Ikrux said with a perfect bow.

Roxas copied him clumsily, trying to at least be nice for once. Why, he didn't know. But he felt he should be nice.

"Where are we being sent today?" Ikrux asked, with a polite tone. It was weird, how Ikrux could be so nice to their superiors. But, he didn't have the memories that Roxas did. He was free from the grueling memory of death and torture.

"You both are going to a new world today. Deep Jungle."

Roxas's interest piqued. Well, maybe today wouldn't be so bad. A world he knew. That was great!

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"I don't get it." Roxas mumbled, summoning his keyblade, "Clayton's already dead. So why are the heartless still here?"

"Huh?" Ikrux asked, turning to look at him. In his hand, he held his Soul Eater down by his waist.

Roxas hesitated. He hadn't told Riku about it much, had he? Well, he was about to find out.

"In my old life, me and that girl, Kairi, as well as a few more friends were here, and we took down the villain. So the heartless shouldn't be here, it doesn't make sense."

Ikrux blinked a few times, then nodded. His gaze fell, like he was thinking. "The name Kairi feels familiar..."

Roxas gulped. He didn't want to trigger any memories, he didn't want Ikrux to go through was he was.

Roxas had been struggling with his sense of identity lately. One day, he'd feel like himself, and the next, he would wonder if he was Sora instead.

And he had been feeling like that for over a fortnight. And he didn't want Ikrux to have that as an issue.

"It's probably nothing, let's just focus on the mission."

Twice. Roxas thought.

He blocked an attack from a Powerwild, and then hit it with an upward slash. He felt unfocused, like his mind was fuzzy. But nonetheless, he shook it off, and helped Ikrux with attacking.

Ikrux heaved his sword upward, killing a heartless with a darkness slash. "Theres a lot of heartless." He noted.

That was true. There certainly was. But luckily, Roxas had an idea. "Joint attack?" He could practically feel Ikrux's bright smile, even though he wasn't looking at him.