Spiral: Bond of Reasoning
The Contramind’s Carnival

Days turned into weeks at Tsukiomi; still there was no sign of Heartless or Blade Children. They were seeing it as the calm before the storm, but had no clue of when the storm would hit or what they could do to prepare for it.

Ayumu was eating his gourmet lunch that he had made that morning on the roof. Normally he’d be by himself, but that day Sora, Kairi, Riku, and Zefferia decided to join him so they could review what they knew about the Blade Children and the Heartless and what their alliance could mean. No matter how many times they went over what they knew, they could not find a connection or a clue to what the group would be planning.

“Narumi-san, Narumi-saaaaan!” shrieked Hiyono as she burst through the door.

Finally finding Ayumu, Hiyono ran up to him. She grabbed his shoulder and began to violently shake him back and forth as he sat apathetic to her entrance.

“Narumi-san! So this is where you’ve been hiding! This is terrible, are you listening to what I’m saying! This is absolutely awful! It’s an emergency!” she continued screaming.

“Calm down, will you? Don’t make such a racket while I’m eating.” sighed Ayumu.

“Calm down? I am calm!” she yelled, “We’ve got a serious situation here about the Blade Children and all you can do is sit there and…wait! Is that one of your homemade obentou lunches that is just too good to eat by yourself?”

“Wait, did you say something about the Blade Children?” Sora exclaimed.

“Oh, right,” Hiyono explained, “I was heading to the newspaper office to get some stuff done for the next issue. When I got there, everything looked normal and such, so I turned on my computer and got the materials ready like I usually do. But instead of booting up, a strange message greeted me on the monitor! Somebody’s hacked my computer!”

The group rushed to the newspaper office to see. The computer screen was blue with white text. The message read, “From Bashira and the Blade Children: Narumi Junior is to come to the school at midnight. No one else is accompany him but the Keyblade bearers or else.”

“What do you think this means?” Sora analyzed.

“They’ve made their move,” explained Ayumu, “You girls should stay at Hiyono’s tonight.”

“I have resources at home too, just call if I can help,” Hiyono offered.

Kairi interrupted, “No way! I’m coming too! I can use a Keyblade and you could use an extra head around.”

“But Kairi…” Riku began. He was cut off by the determined look in her eyes and knew she was too stubborn to back out by hearing how dangerous it would be. Zefferia gladly agreed to stay with Hiyono like Riku had hoped Kairi would. But the arrangements were settled and they prepared for that evening.

That night, Ayumu stood in front of the school gate with Sora, Riku, and Kairi backing him up. Most of the street lights were off for the late hour. Setting in the west, the first quarter moon dimly lit the school yard behind the gate. Ayumu reached for the gate to inspect it. It eased open with a little bit of pressure. He looked at the hole where the deadbolt would have secured the gate closed then stuck his finger in it, maneuvering a crumpled piece of paper out.

He flattened the paper out and read, “Enter through the front doors, none other.”

“Is it a trap?” Sora asked.

“With the time they’ve had to prepare, they probably have traps everywhere else so they can keep track of us going along the one path that they’ve predetermined,” Ayumu theorized.

The group followed him across the school grounds to the main entrance. They found the doors unlocked and went in. As they entered they could hear music echoing through the hallways. Scattered lights had been left on as well. There were desks stacked to block off the left hallway so they turned right. The music grew louder as they continued.

“Where do you think this will lead?” asked Sora.

“To the source of the music, I’d wager. It sounds like it’s coming from a music room up on the fifth floor of Wing C,” Ayumu said, “This piece is familiar…it’s Franz Liszt. ‘Poetic and Religious Harmonies #3’ labeled, ‘The Blessing of God in Solitude.’”

They turned into Wing C to find the remainder of the hallway blocked off with desks, leaving the stairway to be the only way to proceed. But in front of the landing, stood Rio with a desk and two glasses of what appeared to be water in them. Ayumu’s eyes narrowed at the sight of her.

“Welcome, Narumi Junior,” Rio greeted.

“What do you Blade Children want with me?” demanded Ayumu.

Rio snickered, “We will see if you deserve to know that.”

Rio’s demeanor was different from the shy and frail girl they had seen at school before. Now her voice carried a malicious undertone while her eyes were serious. She grabbed a couple of sugar packets and tore off the tops, dissolving one packet in each glass.

She continued to explain, “We’ll see if you can win against fate. One of these is ordinary sugar and the other is two times the lethal dose of the poison, strychnine. Not even I know which is which, so we’ll each choose a glass to drink from. We both have an equal chance of dying. You can go ahead and pick first, I don’t mind taking the other, that way it doesn’t matter even if I knew which had the poison.”

“Who would accept such a stupid challenge,” Ayumu scoffed, “The law will get you for the murder you committed without me risking my life.”

“There is no solid evidence against me,” Rio reminded him, “Little brother, you want to know about the Blade Children and our connection with your brother, Kiyotaka-sama. You have no way to go but forward. It’s the only way to change fate. The conviction to not loose will decide this game. Do you have the power to believe in yourself?”

Ayumu glared down at the glasses. After some thought, he picked one up.

“I don’t care about fate, but this needs to be settled here and now. The power of belief won’t change anything. This is only a mind game making me think that there is poison in one of the cups. Because you attempted to blow up your chest to hide you’re missing rib, you’d think that I’d buy that you’d easily put your life on the line again when you really don’t have to. All you would have to do is drink first and live, making it appear that my glass would have the poison, which I would not drink because it would kill me. In reality, both packets you used were plain sugar. These glasses only hold slightly sweetened water in them.”

Ayumu pressed the glass to his mouth a tipped it to drink. Immediately his eyes grew big. He slammed the cup back onto the desk as he dropped to his knees. Sora and Kairi hunched over him to make sure he was all right. He seemed shocked beyond words.

“Well that settles it,” stated Rio.

She gulped down her glass and returned the emptied cup to the desk. Despite her lack of height, she looked down at the team in front of her. It appeared that behind her determined expression, she was trying to conceal disappointment.

Rio said, “How pitiful, little brother. You gave a bold speech, but in the end, you only sampled a little bit of the water for the bitter taste that strychnine would give it. You didn’t ingest enough to kill you, so you’ll probably be fine, but running from fate like that is no way to survive.”

Having confirmed that Ayumu would live, Sora stood up and looked straight into Rio’s eyes.

“I may not know much, but I have learned on my travels that sometimes you just have to believe,” stated Sora, recalling learning how to fly in Never Land with Peter Pan to get out of a tight situation, “What Ayumu explained stands to reason. I believe him; this cup isn’t poisoned!”

Sora picked up Ayumu’s cup and chugged it down. He winced as he swallowed, but he wiped his mouth and replaced the cup on the desk. He grinned as he stood tall instead of killing over from strychnine. Ayumu gazed up at Sora in wonder.

“See? There was no poison after all. Now let us move forward,” Sora demanded.

“True you found me out, but only after you forfeited to your fears,” Rio rationalized.

“But you tricked him! That’s not fair!” Sora spluttered.

“If life was fair, we Blade Children wouldn’t have been born in the first place,” Rio paused then continued in a dark tone, “How can anybody believe in you when you can’t even believe in yourself? Can you save anybody, Narumi Junior?”

Ayumu stood up and directly asked, “What is it you want of me?”

Rio averted her eyes and sighed, “Kiyotaka-sama gave us hope, and said that you’re the key. But then Bashira showed up, offering to help us. It doesn’t feel right to work with her, but we haven’t heard from Kiyotaka-sama in a while, so we don’t know what to do.”

“Who is this Bashira?” asked Sora

“She says she’s a Contramind. She offered to free us from our curse if we helped her get Narumi Junior and the Keyblades,” Rio explained.

“A Contramind?” Sora repeated, “I don’t know what she wants with our Keyblades, but it’s probably not for good, and I have a feeling she won’t help you the way you want.”

“So what are you going to do?” Rio pressed Ayumu.

He thought over the predicament, “My brother…has a very clear mind and see the outcome of any predicament. If he say’s I’m the key, then everyone is being played by him…but I’ll continue to see what he is up to.”

Rio looked past Ayumu and Sora to Riku. Her look softened as she gazed upon him. She then turned and waved the group to follow her up the stairs. As they ran up, the music that had been playing since they arrived grew louder.

When they reached the fifth floor, they found Bashira waiting for them along with a teenage boy that had spiky reddish-purple potato colored hair and small rectangular glasses.

“So you’ve chosen them after all,” jeered Bashira as if it was not loss.

“That’s okay, I can take them all out,” the boy sneered.

“Then I’ll leave this to you, Asazuki Kouske” Bashira said.

Bashira retreated to shadows while inconspicuously leaving a few small pink creatures that held the shape of scarabs. They were barely visible as they scurried across the floor as the attention was now focused on Kouske who smirked with folded arms.

“Kouske-kun! What are you doing?” Rio screamed.

“I’m taking my fate into my own hands,” Kouske replied.

Sora warned him, “You shouldn’t trust that lady; she’s likely to destroy you before saving you!”

“And why should I trust you? You could be another hunter that wants to see us dead,” said Kouske.

Rio began to reason, “They’re with Narumi Junior. I feel they’re more likely to help us than Bashira! Remember last time what Kiyo-”

“I’m through listening to what that jerk, Kiyotaka, says. If Narumi Junior really is the key, then he can survive anything I do to him,” interrupted Kouske, “Bashira has already granted me some power for me to save myself!”

With that, Kouske thrust his arm to the side. From behind him, black bumblebees the size of watermelons buzzed towards the group.

“More Heartless! I knew she couldn’t be trusted!” Sora exclaimed.

The Heartless flew straight towards Ayumu, who instinctively jumped back and hid behind Kairi. Her Keyblade appeared as she whacked the creatures out of the air. Sora and Riku joined the fray of fending off the over sized bugs.

“Um, you do realize you’re hiding behind a girl, right?” Kairi asked Ayumu, slightly irritated at being used as a shield.

“It’s all for good reason,” Ayumu assured, “When I faced Kouske before, he already knew of my anaphylactic shock, which means one sting and I’m dead.”

“Let’s see how you get through this,” Kouske laughed as he watched them swat at the swarm of bugs, “There’s no way Narumi Junior can survive this! Especially if he touched the note we left in the gate since it was coated in a powder that these bees are drawn too!”

As the Heartless were all coming from the same direction, the group devised a plan to use the Keyblade wielders at the head of the group and try to go far enough down the hall that they could escape into a classroom. With dozen after dozen of Heartless flying at them, the group progressed slowly while Kouske continued to mock their endeavors.

While they focused on keeping the Heartless bees from stinging Ayumu, they failed to notice the pink scarabs that had snuck up to them and were climbing up the legs of Sora, Kairi, and Riku. They didn’t even feel them when they scurried along their arms. The one on Kairi reached her Keyblade first and attached itself securely. The ones on Sora and Riku began to do the same, but before they could secure themselves on the Keyblades, the motion of taking out Heartless flung the little creatures off. However, the one on Kairi’s blade gave of a miniscule glow as it branded a little seal on the underside before it was flung off.

Finally the group made it to the music room that Rio assured would be safe to enter. She opened the door and the group turned to rush in, slamming the door behind them.

After they calmed down from the encounter, they noticed that the music they heard was no longer playing. When they looked across the room, the piano at the front of the class was vacant, but staring at the cloudy night sky through the tall windows was a tall boy with shoulder length silver hair. He turned towards the newcomers to reveal his forlorn blue eyes and a face very similar to Riku’s.

“Eyes-kun!” exclaimed Rio to the boy.

Eyes glanced over the Keyblade wielders then started to approach the group.

“So you are the ones that wield the Keyblade? The key to end the Blade Children’s suffering. Children of the Keyblade, set me free,” his voice rang slowly with an accent that indicated he had been raised somewhere else.

“And how are we to do that?” asked Sora.

Eyes brought a hand to his chest as he explained, “Our missing rib is the mark of our curse. Use your key in this void and set us free.”

Sora relaxed his arms and let his Keyblade phase out. Kairi and Riku also relinquished their Keyblades. Knowing what striking another human with the Keyblade would really do to them, Sora shook his head.

“If I did that, you would not be free but turn into a monster,” Sora explained.

“Eyes-kun, we can’t trust Bashira, we should wait for Kiyotaka-sama to contact us,” Rio pleaded.

“He already has,” Eyes said, pointing to the flower in a vase that sat on the piano.

“An iris,” Ayumu recognized, “My brother’s favorite flower. He said it meant the joy of the believer.”

A dark portal appeared on the other side of the piano and Bashira slid out.

She soothed, “Yes, he has seen the grand scheme of things and knows we need the minds of the Blade Children, so if you wish to survive, you better fulfill his request.”

“Ugh, it’s you again!” Sora exclaimed.

“Are you sure my brother made that request?” Ayumu pressed.

Eyes responded, “Are you saying that the message I got was false?”

“I think Narumi-san is on the right track!” sounded the familiar voice.

“Hiyono!” Kairi shouted.

Everyone looked at the back of the classroom where the source was and saw Hiyono and Zefferia stand up from behind a desk. Hiyono gave a thumbs up to her friends.

“I’ve been checking into the matter, and Kiyotaka definitely did not send that flower and message!” she revealed.

“Meddling brats, you’ll pay for not heeding the warning in the note!” hissed Bashira.

Hiyono pointed out, “Tut, tut. We came here on our own, by ourselves, on our own time. We did not accompany them!”

Sora smiled, “Well, Blade Children, it looks like we can help you out after all by ridding you of this counter-mind person!”

The Keyblade bearers focused their attention on Bashira. Realizing she was outnumbered, she opened a portal and slipped away.

“I’m in no mood to fight today, but you will fight for me soon enough,” she warned as she departed into the darkness.

The threat gone, Rio jumped to give Eyes a hug.

“Oh, do tell me you brought a melon for me today!” she exclaimed.

As Eyes fell back from her embrace, he bumped into the piano, causing the vase to wobble and fall to the ground. It lay shattered with water and the iris that was inside. Ayumu walked over and picked it up, thinking about his brother while he examined it.

“How did you know it wasn’t from your brother,” Sora asked.

Ayumu sighed, “My brother and I are a lot alike. So much that it’s sickening. And with the working with those dark creatures and such, I wouldn’t trust her, and I don’t think my brother would either.”

Riku gazed upon the flower as he pondered, “The joy of those who believe.”

Then the iris began to glow and levitate from Ayumu’s hand. Recognizing this to be another gateway to other worlds, Sora brought his Keyblade out again to connect the pathway.

Sora smiled at Ayumu, “We have to go now, but we’ll see you around, okay?”

Slightly confused, but not too phased, Ayumu nodded back as the travelers departed.

Bonus: OMAKE!

Zeffy Poppins

Sora downs the glass Ayumu had chosen in one gulp.

“See, no poison!” he proves to Rio.

Standing up, Ayumu deduces, “So the bitterness I tasted…it was cold medicine and not strychnine after all? Both cups held diluted medicine while both packets were just plain sugar!”

Zefferia pops up, exclaiming, “So with a spoon full of sugar, the medicine went down!”

“This was nothing after Aerith’s lemonade,” Sora adds.