I wanted to go for a walk, get some fresh air. I couldn’t stop going over the last week or so in my head. If someone had told me a month ago that all this was going to happen, I would have died from laughing too much. Once I reached the beach, I closed my eyes and let the cool, salty wind play over my face. “Enjoying yourself?” I knew that voice. I conjured two balls of water, and opened my eyes to face Axel. “Whoa, whoa, calm down little lady! I’m not here to do anything horrible.” I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. I figured that was how he always acted, just to confuse people.

“He’s telling the truth. We need you.” Another voice floated over, this one unused to being friendly. I rounded on Zexion now. “You! Stand over there, with him! Now!” I was slightly surprised when he actually did what I told him to – they must have been telling the truth. “Now then, what the hell do you want?” Axel grinned. “We wanted to apologize, of course. We shouldn’t have been so…what the word? We shouldn’t have been so forward with you.” I let my water balls vanish, too confused to fight them. Zexion stepped forward. He seemed upset, for some reason. I raised an eyebrow. This was the real reason they wanted me.

Zexion swallowed. A single tear rolled down his face, and splashed onto the sand. “It’s about Gildas.” Axel sighed. “For God’s sake, man, pull it together already! It’s not like you would have worked out anyway. So anyway, Haru, after the whole wind thing, we got blown to some weird part of the island. So then there was this huge blue beam somewhere nearby, and when we went to go check it out, there was this huge hole in the ground, and in there were two bodies. One was Ansem’s and the other was-” Zexion sniffed loudly, making Axel snort with laughter. “And the other was Gildas’s, right?” I finished. Axel nodded, unable to talk through his laughter.

I swallowed. I didn’t quite know what to say, or how to react. Gildas had been my best friend for so long, but he had been acting so strangely recently. I just wished that everything could be clear, for once. My head had been in a mess ever since that fateful morning that had started our journey. “Is he…Is he dead?” Zexion sank down onto the sands and buried his head in his hands. Axel rolled his eyes. “No, he was still breathing, so we brought him over here. Well, not here, but…” he trailed off and nodded behind me. I turned around, and saw a dark lump on the light horizon.

I couldn’t hold myself back. I sprinted over to Gildas’s body, and pushed his hair out of his face. His eyes were closed, but his face seemed more relaxed. Even if Ansem’s presence hadn’t completely left him, he had managed to chase out most of him at the very least. Axel walked up behind me, and I stood up. “Pick him up and follow me. We’ll walk and talk.” He did as I told him, and I asked all the questions I thought of on the way back to the hut that was serving as a makeshift home for us.

“Why is Zexion so upset? What did you do with Ansem’s body? What was the blue beam?” Axel stopped walking, so I turned round to face him. “What?” I felt so exasperated; all I wanted was answers. “Look, we didn’t see enough. But we woke up covered in this blue light, so we ran towards it. Then, we saw a giant dragon thing, and…He flew away, and there was a huge crater, and Gildas and Ansem were lying in it. We brought Gildas over here, but we left Ansem in the hole. He wasn’t breathing though.” I nodded, and beckoned for Axel to follow me again.

We got into the hut to see Riku pinning Zexion up against the wall. There were still tear tracks running down Zexion’s face, and he look terrified of Riku. I slammed the door behind me and Axel, and Riku turned to look at me. “Put him down, Riku! Put him down, he can’t breathe!” Zexion was rapidly turning a deep shade of pink, and Riku dropped him. He fell to the floor with a crash, and he stayed there, clutching his throat and gulping for air. “Put Gildas down on the bed upstairs, Axel,” I muttered, and Axel climbed the stairs. Meanwhile, Riku was staring at me like I had lost my mind. I summed up everything that had happened as quickly as I could but he still wasn’t completely happy.

L stirred behind me, and I whipped around. “L! How are you feeling?” He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Refreshed,” he replied, stretching his arms out. “That was the best nap I have ever had.” I laughed with relief, and slapped him playfully. Axel came down the stairs loudly. “Where’s Sora?” he asked. That caught Riku’s attention. “We haven’t seen him, he was with you. Why, did you lose him? How could you have lost him?” He was getting really agitated. Just then, there came a faint knock on the door. I pulled it open, and standing in the doorway was a boy a little older than me, with spiky brown hair and eyes that sparkled blue.

“Sora!” Riku exclaimed, running over to the door. “They said they lost you, I was…” His voice faded to nothing. Sora grinned goofily. “What, were you lonely?” He laughed lightly. “So who are these people? Hey Axel, Zexion. Where’s Gildas? What happened after that big storm?” Riku walked backwards. “This is L, and that’s Haru. Gildas is upstairs, resting. He got hurt by a big summoning.” Sora nodded. “Okay…” I stopped listening then; I was lost in my thoughts. What were we going to do about Gildas? Without realising it, I had begun to walk up the stairs, and was already standing by Gildas’s bed before I was totally aware of what was going on.

“You know, I think there’s something really the matter with your friend. He won’t wake up on his own, and my magic can’t help him.” L had followed me, and was standing behind me now. Zexion filed in, too, and collapsed to the floor by Gildas’s bed, ignoring both me and L. “…So what do we do?” I asked, fearing the answer that question would bring. “Well, if I’m right, then he’s like this because there’s still darkness roaming his heart. But there is a type of magic I’ve heard of…It’s called Holy. Unfortunately, I can’t use it, but any good black mage will know it. I think that’s the only thing that can save Gildas now.” I nodded, and led L back downstairs, leaving Zexion by Gildas’s bedside.

“Sha’dak,” I asked, “can you do me a favour?” He nodded, his amber eyes fixed on mine. Somehow, his eyes always managed to make me feel uncomfortable. “Will you fly off, and find the nearest decent black mage? And then come back here and take me to him?” Sha’dak didn’t answer; he simply walked through the door and took flight. I sighed deeply, furrowing my brow. “Right then.” I addressed the whole group. “I need to go and find a black mage who can teach me how to use Holy. L thinks that’s the only way to save Gildas now. But…I’d really rather not go on my own, so if someone could come with me, that’d be…Yeah.” As soon as I finished talking, Riku was by my side. “I’ll come with you, Haru.” L nodded. “I’m coming too.”

Now that it was decided that Riku, L and I would go and find this black mage, we set about finding things to occupy ourselves until Sha’dak returned. Axel was outside, training with his chakram; Sora went fishing; Riku and I went to find mushrooms; whilst Zexion refused to leave Gildas. Night had fallen by the time Sha’dak returned. We were all sitting around a campfire, having just finished a meal of fresh fish and mushrooms – apart from Zexion, that is, who still hadn’t left Gildas’s bedside.

When I saw the Shinigami flying towards us, I jumped up. “Sha’dak!” I yelled, waving my arms frantically. “Please tell me you found one! Tell me you found a black mage to teach me Holy!” He landed smoothly in front of me, barely missing standing on L. By this point, everyone had touched the Death Note, and so everyone could see him. “I found one. He’s called Vivi, and he lives in this place called Twilight Town.” Here, Axel gasped. I assumed he had been there before, but was too wrapped up in finding this Vivi that I didn’t ask. “Right. Let’s go, then. How can we get to this Twilight Town?” “Luckily,” Sha’dak replied, “it’s just across the sea from here. You can see Twilight Town from the island, on the other side.” I nodded. That was the first piece of good news I had had in a while. “Let’s get going, then!”

Riku cleared his throat to catch my attention, and shook his head. “You’re not going anywhere, tonight. You need to sleep. You can leave in the morning.” I made to protest, but he cut me off. “I’m not getting you across the sea until morning, and since I’ve got the only raft on this island, you haven’t got any choice in the matter. Now, the sooner you go to bed, the sooner you’ll wake up, so off you go!” I skulked into the hut – but I didn’t go quietly. I was muttering and cursing under my breath the whole way. I decided to sleep downstairs tonight; I didn’t want to share a room with a non-responsive Gildas and his creepy ‘friend’ Zexion.

I hadn’t realised just how tired I was, so it was a surprise to me that I fell asleep as soon as I got into bed. When I woke up, sunlight was starting to filter in. I jumped out of bed and dressed hurriedly, careful of Sora sleeping on the floor, and Axel sleeping on the sofa opposite the bed. Once outside, I walked to the other side of the island to find Riku readying a raft, and L standing nearby. I wished them both a good morning, and then took my first look at Twilight Town, across the sparkling sea. It looked like an ordinary town to me; the only prominent feature was the clock tower rising high above the other buildings.

It wasn’t long until we were rowing away from the island. Well, I say we, but Riku was the only one actually rowing. Once there, we tied the raft to an empty wooden pier and walked into town. We had set Sha’dak circling the town to find Vivi, and we saw him hovering in the sky above what looked like a sandlot. When he saw us, he pointed to the boy below him. He was very short, and wore a long blue coat with a pointy hat. I walked up to him; a huge smile fixed on my face, and introduced myself. “Hi, my name’s Haru. I’m a new mage. I need your help.”

The boy turned to look at me, and I was startled to see he had a black face, with two large, yellow eyes that gave him the look of being permanently sad. “I’m V-Vivi. What do you want?” He seemed to be terrified of us, so I put on my sweetest voice. “I was wondering if you could teach me how to use Holy?” Vivi nodded. “Okay. But promise you’ll be my friend then?” I nodded. Was that all? Wow, this was easier than I had expected. This kid was either unbelievably lonely – or just plain stupid. Vivi showed me how to use Holy, but there was one problem. He had never heard of using it in the way we were planning to. This was going to be risky.

We bid Vivi a ‘friendly’ goodbye, promising to visit him again as soon as we could. My stomach was busy tying itself in knots as Riku untied the rope keeping the raft docked there. By the time we got to the other side, I wanted to throw up. My legs threatened to give way, and my arms shook violently, but I stayed upright – with only a little support from Riku and L. Looking at Gildas lying in bed peacefully, I could have cried. “W-What if I get this wrong, Riku? What if I make it worse? What if…What if he dies – and it’s all my fault!” Riku squeezed my hand. “What else is there to do?” he asked sadly. “I’ll be right here, Haru.” I nodded.

L was stood on my other side, and Zexion was just past him, still sat on the floor. He had curled into a ball, but other than that, he didn’t seem to have moved at all. I swallowed. “Here goes nothing,” I whispered. I focused all my energy into the tips of my fingers, and concentrated on the darkness clouding Gildas’s heart. “Holy.” White light spread down my hands, and into Gildas’s chest. He started shouting, and his body went rigid. I gripped onto Riku’s arm.

“Relax.” L was talking through a mouthful of cake, but I couldn’t even wonder where he had got it from. “This is just his body rejecting the darkness. So you can calm down.” All I could do was watch in terror as Gildas shook. I could have sworn Zexion was crying quietly, but I couldn’t hear over the shrill noise Gildas was making. Eventually, Gildas’s body relaxed again, and he stopped yelling. Everything stopped. We were all silent; L stopped munching his cake; Zexion buried his head; I held onto Riku even tighter, who put his arm around me in response.

Walking down the streets in Twilight Town, I still felt confused. I was lonely, but I wasn’t…I missed Gildas, but I had Riku…”What happened…when you…when you were p-possessed, Riku?” I asked nervously. He didn’t look at me when he answered, quite a while later. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you’re asking. I figured you would have asked earlier, actually. Well, I was trying to find Kairi’s heart and find Sora, and then I got possessed. I started competing with Sora, and fighting against him, and then…I tried to use Kairi’s heart to unlock the door to darkness so I could be all powerful…” Riku looked like he was in pain just thinking about it. I took his hand, and whispered, “Well, I’m very glad you aren’t possessed anymore, then.” He laughed, and we carried on walking.

“Isn’t that Vivi over there?” L asked – and he was eating more cake. Someday I was going to ask him where he got all his cake, I decided. Looking where he was pointing, I nodded, and we walked over to him. We were here to ask for Vivi’s help again. “Hey Vivi,” I said. “We told you we’d come back and see you again.” He clapped his hands and jumped up and down. Nobody had ever been that glad to see me before. I gave him a sea salt ice cream; on Riku’s suggestion we had bought some to ‘sweeten him up’. Once I had finished my ice cream, I asked Vivi, “Do you think you could teach me how to use the third tier spells?”

I was disappointed when Vivi shook his head, but his next sentence cheered me up a lot more. “No, I can’t, but I know someone who can. Her name is Quistis, and she’s a teacher at Balamb Garden, west from here. But while you’re here, I can teach you a few more spells that I don’t think you know.” We spent the rest of the day improving my repertoire, and by the time night fell, I had learned Aero, Bio, Drain, and Gravity. I had also found out that other spells left to learn were Meteor, Stop, Poison and Death.

Once Vivi had gone home, we discussed where we were going to stay the night. There was an inn nearby, but the rates were pretty high, and we needed to save up our money in case this journey lasted longer than we expected. But we knew we couldn’t go back to Destiny Island; not only would the weather be bad tomorrow, but it would make it even harder to leave again. We had wandered while we talked, and found ourselves in a back alley. In front of us, three kids walked out of a cloth hanging, talking amongst themselves. They didn’t even notice us. After they had gone, Riku ducked under the cloth, and then came back for us. Inside was a hideout, with two sofas. “This’ll do, won’t it? As long as we leave early enough, I guess.” It was decided that L and me would sleep on either sofa, and Riku settled down to sleep on the rug on the floor. I protested, but Riku wasn’t having any of it. He always had been stubborn.

The next morning, we woke up to the sunlight streaming through the bare window, and got ready as quickly as we could. We were lucky; as soon as we had left the hideout, the three kids from last night walked round the corner and walked into their den, taking no notice of us again. I found that strangely funny, and couldn’t stop laughing while we stocked up. Riku turned to me while L was paying for some Potions. “You’re allowed to be sad, you know.” I nodded, and my laughing petered out. I remembered that Vivi had had a staff yesterday, which helped him to focus his magic, and aim it. Therefore, we went into a weapons shop and I spent ages picking out the right staff for me.