All That Never Was (Kingdom Hearts) (Discontinued)

Chapter Twelve:

"Riku, can we please be done now?" I gasped for breath, my hands on my knees. We had been sparring since six AM which was the time that Riku had chosen to wake me up from a deep sleep. He had come to our hotel and pounded on my door for around five minutes before I was able to drag my half awake butt to the door.

"Waddayawant?" I slurred, rubbing my eyes.

"Training. Now." he had said sternly before walking away down the hall.

I groaned and slid down the wall, to the floor. After a few minutes I got up slowly, my legs still half asleep like the rest of me. I shuffled around the room, getting ready to face the day. When I was finally dressed with my hair brushed and my breath minty, I walked out of the hotel. Believe it or not, I didn't face the rising sun with open arms shouting, "Good morning world!". Instead I squinted at the sunrise and mumbled, "Stupid sun. Go away." before scanning the plaza for Riku. I eventually found him at a moogle shop buying several potions and elixirs, no doubt going to be used for our training. My eyes went wide and I murmured "Oh crap," before approaching him.

"Here, carry these." he said, and before I could protest, he dumped several bottles containing colorful liquids into my arms. "You'll need them."

After that he led me through the towns baileys and to the spot where you fight Demyx in Kingdom Hearts 2. I wasn't at all surprised at the fact that the town was completely empty at the moment. Once he announced that we were stopping there, I let out a sigh of relief, dropping to my knees and sending the bottles rolling across the blue tile. Riku raised an eyebrow at me. "What? That was a pretty long walk and I was carrying all those bottles. I need rest!" Not to mention it's only, like, seven in the morning...

"Well forget it. We didn't come out here so you could take a nap," Even though Riku's voice was calm and serious, I saw a spark of amusement in his eyes. "we came here so I could train you to fight."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But why'd we have to come so early?" I asked, yawning and stretching my arms above my head.  

"So your friends wouldn't see us leaving and ask us where we were going."

"Oh...yeah I guess that makes sense."

"So first I'll show you some good techniques, then you can practice them on me." Riku said. He came over to me and handed me a sword. It wasn't Alice's which I had used previously, but it was similar to it. "Alright. First I'll start with the stance. I noticed that yours was pretty sloppy yesterday."

I glared at him. "Hey, it was my first time using an actual sword!" 

He ignored me. "Get in your stance." he ordered.

I wanted to snap back at him like, "Don't tell me what to do!", but refrained from doing so. Instead I just did what he said and got into the stance I had used in my battle against Sora. Just like before, I felt unbalanced and wobbly.

"First of all, you need to keep your weight on your back leg. That way if an enemy gets close you can kick them and it isn't as easy for an enemy to trip you."

I nodded and shifted my weight to my back leg.

"Second, you need to spread your legs apart a little. If they're close together, it'll be harder to move and you'll be off balance."

"Okay." I responded. I moved my legs father apart and found that my balance was already improving.

"And lastly," He suddenly dropped down and windmill kicked my legs out from under me. I tried to dodge, but I was too slow and I fell to the ground, letting out an oof as the breath was knocked out of me. I lay on the ground, eyes wide, lungs gasping for air that, for a moment, wouldn't come.