Down the Twilight Path

Innocence lost

A/N: I'm not even going to make excuses at this point. I had to shelve this series to finish another one on my alternate account. But now I'm back to the world of Kingdom Hearts, just in time for 2.8! As for today's chapter, our protagonist finally leaves home...though likely not in the way that you expect.

Scene 5: Innocence Lost

After Jason left the house, Eileen rummaged around in her pockets and extracted the letter her father had left her. She had lied yesterday when she told Jason that the contents of her letter were identical to the one their mother had left Jason. But in fairness, Eileen had nothing to do with the level of secrecy. This was a part of the plan their parents had cooked up, and therefore the information was segmented into three tiers: what Jason was allowed to know, what Eileen was allowed to know, and what only their parents knew.

Eileen couldn't stand being in the dark, and she knew Jason wouldn't like it any more than she did if (or when) he found out. But she knew that they were dealing with something they couldn't hope to understand, and so the only thing she could do was trust in the contingency plan their parents had set up. She scanned the letter from her father to see if there were any instructions for the current scenario.

"Eileen, when your mother and I were younger, we practiced a craft known as magic. There are many kinds of magic, but for now, you two only need to know two kinds: offensive magic and restorative magic. If you follow these instructions, you should find some basic spell books we brought from our hometown."

"For all the good magic served you," Eileen muttered derisively then immediately felt guilty about what she said, although she was alone. She didn't bother going over the instructions her father had left her – she already knew where the spellbooks were.

"Hey, Jason!"

Jason stopped his aimless wanderings to see who had called him and saw his two best friends, Mika and Reika, running toward him.

He had met the two of them when he was little, and they were the first friends he had ever made. Mika had light-brown hair that went down to his shoulders, dark brown eyes, and an unassuming face with a crooked nose that looked as if it had been broken. Reika had black, wavy hair, dark red eyes, and tanned skin.

The two of them approached Jason with looks of concern on their faces.

"You've been holding up, Jason?" Mika asked. "We didn't see you at all yesterday."

"Sorry guys," Jason said. "But I needed to clear my head, and then I ran into some trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Reika asked.

"I wish I could tell you, but I really don't know how to explain what happened," Jason answered.

"You don't know how to explain it, huh?" Reika said, sounding doubtful. "Well, feel free to get back to us about that when you can tell us what happened."

Jason privately noted where his friend had emphasized her words and nodded.

"In the meantime, I see you have your bo staff with you," Mika noted.

"My sister recommended I bring this with me," Jason said. "If you want, we can spar. could use the exercise."

"I'll spar with you," Reika volunteered. "Mika is still recovering from our last spar a few weeks ago."

"For the hundredth time, I'm sorry about the nose," Jason said sheepishly.

The three friends relocated to the local sandlot, which was vacant. Jason and Reika took fighting poses while facing each other at a fair distance. Mika stood off to the side, acting as a referee. While Jason wielded his bo staff, Reika decided to fight bare-handed.