Kingdom Hearts 3.5: Passions of Light

A Game of Chess

No One's POV

It was two hours past midnight.

The night sky had darkened, but not enough for the moonlight to be ensnared by the clouds. The windows, opposing the doors in the hallway, let in enough light for a sly cat to walk around.

Umbra cautiously stepped through the hallway like a thief in the night. As swift as a cat, as quiet as a mice. He swiftly walked over to Akari's room. He looked back to the hallway and focused his attention on the doors. He slowly reached for the door with his left hand, while he hid an object behind his back with his other hand. He, ever so carefully, opened the door and paced backwards to enter the room. His eyes glued to the hallway and the doors that remained still, asleep as the people instide them.

The door's handle let out a very subtle squek, as Umbra's tight and nervous grip let go of it. Umbra exhaled and his shoulders slumped slightly. He turned around. The room was light only by the moonlight, but that was enough for him. The room was filled with shades of blue, some brighter some darker. His eyes traveled to the wall in feont of him.
Close to the wall, was a small, wooden, circular desk. Two seats on both sides of the desk, yet one of them was filled. Akari sat on the left chair. His right arm rested on the chair's top rail, while his other arm rested on the desk in front of it. His right ankle rested a top of his left knee, just an inch above it. Legs pointing towards the door.

Umbra smiled at looking that his friend had not forgotten the plan. "Relax, unlike my little.. oversight with the item from the entertainment room, I hid the pieces" Akari said, calm yet slightly cold voice. "Where are they?" Umbra asked. Akari's left arm pointed to the other side of the room on Umbra's right. "Behind the bookshelf, beside the bed" Akari said.

Umbra walked past the bed and went to the bookshelf. "Two shelves down, three books to the right, it's behind it" Umbra heard Akari say. Umbra trailed his left index finger along the corner of the bookshelf. Two shelves down and then three books to the right. He removed three of the thin books out of the way, to the bed, and reached inside. His eyes closed shut, with a slight frown on his eyebrows. His fingers patiently moved around to feel for what he searched for. Alas, he found what he searched for.

It was a hidden compartment. Inside was a medium sized wooden box. He held it close to his person. He smiled knowing the box was safe. He turned around and walked over to the desk to join Akari.

"You know, Xehanort sat on the left side of where Eraqus and he played back at Scala at Caelum?" Umbra asked Akari. "Did you just compare our relationship with one of an evil person, who killed his best friend? Or is it just comparing me to my "other self"..?" Akari said. Both shared an awkward silence before chuckling. Umbra sat on the desk, but after that didn't say a word. Neither did Akari, they just stared at the box. Knowing that what they needed to do now was going to be important, for the greater good...

Umbra cleared his throat and revealed the object that was originally originally in his grasp. It was a leather mat, a small one at that. It actually looked more like a rolled up map.
Umbra handed Akari the box while he unwrapped the leather map. He undid the ribbon, letting the square mat spread freely. It was big enough to almost cover the desk, but small enough to not take over the corners. The mat was wrinkled and tough. Its corners bent upwards.

Umbra used on of his long and pointy nails to scratch something into the mat. Once he finished, the sigils he drew glowed with a bright blue hue. The mat straightened itself out, un-wrinkling its body. It stretched and revealed itself to be a chessboard mat. Black and white patterned squares. Yet, it had no letters nor numbers along its borders. One peculiar thing about the chess mat was that right in its center, was a grey circle, cutting parts of the 4 center squares.