All That Never Was (Kingdom Hearts) (Discontinued)

Chapter Thirteen:

Riku P.O.V.

After the group disbanded, Kora and I set off toward the area where we had been training before. Axel, making a smart decision, had decided to take Julie to the Great Maw for training. That way there was nothing around for her to set on fire. Sora had decided to follow Kora and me. We coordinated our training and came up with a good method for teaching. I taught Kora a move and Sora taught Tim the same move. We let them practice on each other which seemed easier for both us and our apprentices.

Kora progressed very fast. She was able to comprehend most moves easily and had beaten Tim every time they sparred. All I had to do was explain the move to her, show her how the move looked, and she would preform the move almost perfectly on her first try. She was also very enthusiastic and optimistic. The few times when she failed to perform an attack, she was eager to try again. I really admired that about her.

Now Tim and Kora were sparring again. They were practicing ariel attacks. Kora ran at Tim, her sword at her side. When she was only a few feet away she jumped into the air, slashing downward with her blade. Tim easy blocked the attack and thrust his own weapon forward, pushing Kora back. She landed steadily on her feet. Then Tim ran toward her. Instead of jumping up for an ariel attack, he slid under her legs, jumping up behind her, and slashing at her back. The attack would have dealt her great damage if the swords hadn't had blunt edges.

Kora turned to me and said, "I thought we were supposed to be practicing ariel attacks! Shouldn't he get, like, a penalty or something?"

I just shrugged and motioned for her to continue the fight.

"This could just be a test for everything we've learned so far." Sora called from the other side of the canyon

I nodded.

"So does that mean after this we can be done?" Kora asked. I noticed that she looked tired, her blade dragging on the ground and sweat beading on her forehead. Her curly red hair was tangled and hung down in front of her face.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Then let's get this over with." Tim exclaimed. He ran forward and slashed at Kora, but she jumped back, just out of reach of his blade. Kora jumped up, performing a Quick Blitz. She landed a hit on Tim's shoulder, causing him to stagger slightly. Seeing his guard being down for just a moment, she took it to her advantage and sliced at him several times. Her attacks were so fast that Tim didn't even have the chance to block. When Kora finally stopped landing blows on him, he fell to his knees.

"I give up!" he declared.

Kora cheered and did a little dance. I felt proud at how well she had done and my lips curled into a small smile.

"Good job, Kora." I congratulated her.

She looked completely exhausted, but still managed to give me a weak smile. "Thanks." she said. "Now can we go back to our hotel and shower and sleep and stuff?"

"Yeah, I'm exhausted." Tim agreed wiping sweat off his forehead.

I nodded and both of them instantly ran off toward the hotel.

"Huh, and I thought they were totally exhausted." Sora said, coming over to me. He folded his hands behind his head and smiled. There was a moment of silence before he spoke again. "They kinda remind you of us, huh? Except, ya'know, Kora's a girl, and we didn't have mentors or anything. But they're all enthusiastic like us. It kinda reminds me of the times when we used to spar on the islands and-"

I stopped listening to Sora, becoming lost in my own thoughts. Enthusiasm and personality wise they did kind of remind me of us. They were eager to learn and rather competitive. A memory of Sora and I sparring on Destiny Islands when we were younger popped into my mind. I mentally compared it with Tim and Kora's sparring session and came to the conclusion that we were definitely alike. Kora used all of the unexpected, surprising attacks, and Tim used all of the common, expected ones.