Swords Drawn

Riku walked out of the Save Point, having just arrived in Radiant Garden after his visit to Olympus. He hadn't expected to be back so soon, but his meeting with Azumi Tamashii and Sorin had given him more info on locating Aqua. After telling the woman to visit Yen Sid so she could share with him everything she knew about the lost Keyblade Master, he decided to escort the newly arrived Converger swordsman to get his own Gummi ship.

So the Keyblade Master waited for Sorin to come down from the ship. Once he saw him, he turned around. "Let's go. I'll take you to Merlin's house." Riku lead the way, even though he figured the new Converger knew where it was, he was still inexperienced in combat. There was also the fact that Sorin had a sword that felt utterly strange and wrong. The Keyblade Master hoped Merlin would have some insight on the weapon itself.

(Sorin and Shining only.)

Sorin stepped out of the Save Point and couldn't stop himself from looking around. Traveling through Gummi Space was amazing enough but now that he was in such a recognizable world from Kingdom Hearts was something else. Just around him Sorin had a vague idea of where exactly he and Riku were. Sure the games didn't go into too much detail about the town but Sorin felt he might have a decent idea of where to go to get to Merlin.

"Right." Sorin replied to the Keyblade Master as the two made their way to Merlin's house. On the way Sorin didn't say much as he was far too busy taking in the sights. Even after learning everything he has from Riku, to truly see the worlds like Radiant Garden for himself was nothing short of amazing.

Jonathan had arrived at Radiant Garden earlier, eager for answer from Merlin. However, the wizard had been out, apparently wanting to eat at a bistro. Curious, he had been exploring the whole town in search of such a bistro but couldn't find out. It was then Jonathan remembered there was one in Twilight Town, which he had been in before. Realizing the waste of time, he decided to see if he could find Heartless so he could remember how to fight, and also learn how to use his scimitar.

After a few bouts and practice swings with his sword, Jonathan decided to return back to town and try Merlin's home again. He walked back to the wizard's home and knocked on the door to see if there was anyone there. "Hello. Are you back, Merlin?" The swordsman waited for a bit to see if someone responded. When he didn't even hear the sound of Cid grumbling that he was busy, Jonathan opened the door and saw that there was no one inside. "Looks like he isn't back yet." He walked inside, deciding to wait for Merlin to come back.

"Here it is." Riku said, seeing Merlin's house as they got closer to it. As the two reached the front door, he could see that it was already open and someone was inside. Raising an eyebrow, the Keyblade master walked in and noticed a guy inside, with a sword on his back looking around. Going inside, he could tell the latter looked new, unused to carrying a weapon. "Merlin's not here?" Riku asked, walking into the wizard's abode through the open door.

He took a good look at the swordsman in front of him, then glanced back at Sorin before shifting his gaze back to the stranger. "You look new, which means you're here for Merlin, right? I'm Riku and this is Sorin." The Keyblade Master introduced the two. "If I'm right, you're a Converger as well."

Sorin looked around, hiding his slight annoyance that Merlin was not in rather well. Still there was nothing he could until he returns so he turned his attention back at the person who was inside. He didn't stand out, in the way that someone like Riku did and from Riku's words it seemed like he too was a Converger then he was likely the same as Sorin. It was interesting to see someone else like him after meeting Riku and Azumi.

"Hey." Sorin said as he raised a hand. "I'm Sorin Luca."

While he was in a new and exciting place that didn't change the fact that Sorin wasn't the most social person around. For the time being he would let Riku lead the conversation. After all the Keyblade Master probably had much more experience in dealing with people in this kinds of situations than he did.

Jonathan blinked as two people walked into Merlin's house while he was waiting inside. One was very recognizable as Riku, one of the protagonists of the Kingdom Hearts series and from what he saw of his appearance, already a Keyblade Master. The other one was a brown haired guy, carrying a tanto on his waist. As both of them introduced themselves, Jonathan, took the offered hand from Sorin and shook it, also gripping the hand tightly. "I am. Jonathan Trinity. I'm here hoping to get answers from Merlin so I just opened then door, walked in and he wasn't here. He's probably at the bistro."

It hadn't occurred to Jonathan that Riku probably had no idea what he meant by bistro, nor did it occur to him to check when in the timeline all of this was happening. After all, he had just become a Converger recently and this was his first run in with others since he obtained his own Gummi Ship. "I dunno when he'll be back." He answered, not having let go of Sorin's hand the whole time.

"Bistro?" Riku asked. He crossed his arms, wondering what the new guy, Jonathan meant. There was also the fact that he knew where Merlin had gone event though he came for him in his home, but concluded it was because he was from the Realm of Reality that he had that knowledge about the wizard's location. The Keyblade Master watched him keep shaking Sorin's hand with a tight grip, not having let go yet and finally pointed it out. "You can let go of his hand now."

Once Jonathan had let go of Sorin's hand, Riku continued. "Since you're looking for Merlin, that means you're a recent arrival. I can try answering some questions, at least until he returns. But you'll need to talk to Cid if you want a Gummi ship of your own." His gaze soon went to Jonathan's sword, which didn't give of a feeling like Sorin's did. The Keyblade Master didn't shrug it off though, figuring that if the Converger in front of him had arrived with the weapon, then it had a secret in it like Sorin's sword.

Sorin didn't respond to Jonathan not letting go of his hand till Riku said something. With a nod of thanks to the Keyblade Master, Sorin took a second to think about things. Since they had to wait for Merlin and the others to return there wasn't really much they could do.

Since Riku offered to answer some questions Sorin decided to use the opportunity. During the trip over he didn't get a chance to really ask, being far too focused looking out into Gummi Space. "How many know about the whole Realm of Reality stuff." After what had happened with Azumi, Sorin wanted to know how many people knew just so he knew how careful he would have to be. He honestly would not be a good person in trying to comfort anyone with something that world shattering.

"Well, Yen Sid already knows." Jonathan replied, hearing Sorin's question. "He's the one who gave me answers when I became a Converger. I think I spent weeks in Twilight Town, having to save up munny to get the train ticket to his Tower." He added, finally stopping his hand from shaking the air, having kept moving it since Sorin released his. "There were some questions he couldn't answer though so I came here hoping Merlin could have some insight."

Jonathan grabbed his sheathed sword from behind him and brought it forward. "Especially on this sword. When I woke up after the Convergence, I found this with me. Yen Sid couldn't tell me much about this. Just that it seemed special and to keep it with me. Maybe I can ask other people who know about the Convergence if Merlin can't give me any new info. Just need to avoid saying anything about coming from the Realm of Reality. Who knows what kind problems that could cause, having to explain that. You'd have to be an idiot to openly tell people your world's a video game and fiction where I come from, like that."

Riku glared at Jonathan's comment about, although he couldn't deny he was wrong. After all, his conflict with Azumi back in Olympus happened because of lack of foresight involving that. Still, the Keyblade master glanced at the sword Sorin was carrying when the other Converger mentioned waking up with one then looked at the brown haired swordsman. "Sounds a lot like when you woke up."

Riku looked back at Jonathan's sword, seeing it was different from Sorin's. He crossed his arms, looking at both Convergers who had a similar experience, waking up with a weapon, already at their side and having a strange feeling from them. The Keyblade Master then noted he couldn't feel anything from Jonathan's sword.

Suddenly, in a cloud of smoke, appeared a familiar, blue robed, pointy hat, bearded wizard. "I say, I wasn't expecting company. Riku, my boy, are they Convergers?"

The Keyblade Master nodded. "They're Jonathan and Sorin. The latter I found in Olympus while Jon here came looking for you after getting answers from Master Yen Sid."

Sorin could only shake his head at Jonathan's comment about the Realm of Reality. Not only had he just had Azumi and her reaction to that news but with just how he said it, Sorin can easily see this coming back and biting Jonathan in the ass. Sorin wasn't sure if such things would actually be more common among these worlds but there was no way he was going to just tempt fate like that and find out. Though, Sorin started thinking to himself, what are the chances of him meeting up with someone who also wanted to talk to Merlin about their mysterious sword?

Thankfully Merlin appeared back home before too long. It was strange for Sorin to see what he usually just saw as a cartoon character in person. Sure the people back in Olympus were technically the same but it was different seeing a much more recognizable character like Merlin.

"You can go first since you were waiting longer." Sorin told Jonathan as he backed off after greeting Merlin.

Jonathan simply raised an eyebrow, wondering why Sorin was shaking his head and Riku was glaring at him. "What?" He asked, wondering about their expressions. The swordsman didn't have much time to think on it as in a conjuring of blue fog, appeared the reason they were all in the house in the first place. The wizard Merlin himself.

With a nod at Riku, Jonathan stepped forward, unsheathing his sword. "I've already spoken to Yen Sid before and he told me a lot about the Convergence. He couldn't tell me much about my sword though or some other things. I came here because of my sword though." He explained, holding the weapon in both hands so the wizard could take a look.

"My, let's see..." Merlin pulled out his wand from the left sleeve of his own robe. Waving the wand above the weapon, the wizard launched a small bolt of magic at it. He waited a moment or two before raising an eyebrow. "Strange. The sword was supposed to be levitating right about now. And I can sense magic within the blade now."

Jonathan looked over the sword, holding it by the hilt. "Really?"

"Why yes, I do believe your sword absorbed my spell."

"What, so I just aim it the-" Jonathan did and the spell that was in the sword suddenly shot out, hitting one of the chairs and making it levitate towards the wizard, who stopped it with one hand. "That's useful."

"You could wait until I finished talking before doing something like that, my boy." Merlin scolded, pulling the chair back to the ground and undoing the spell.

Riku watched as Jonathan spoke with Merlin, his guess about the latter's sword proving correct. Watching the testing the wizard did using his magic, he also ducked when the black haired swordsman grabbed his sword and somehow launched the spell from the weapon itself and hit one of the chairs in the room, causing it to float. The Keyblade Master glared at him. "Be careful!"

He looked to check if Sorin was all right, even though the shot spell went nowhere near the other swordsman Converger. "So his sword somehow took in your spell then launched it at his command, Merlin? That sounds a lot different from Sorin's sword." Riku looked back at Sorin and motioned his head forward, letting him move ahead to show his sword to the wizard.

Sorin took a step back once once Jonathan threw out the spell that his sword had absorbed. It certainly was a useful ability, just the ability to absorb the spells would be powerful defensively but then the fact that he can use them offensively made it even more powerful. It did make Sorin wonder though, what was so special about his sword that Riku compared it to Jonathan's?

Still he stepped forward and pulled his sword out from behind him and started to unsheathe it. Once a hint of the blade was exposed Merlin quickly came over and forced the sword back into the sheathe. The suddenness of it surprised Sorin as Merlin stared rather intently at the sword.

"Yes this sword is very much different. I only needed to feel it for an instant to understand it. While Jonathan's sword could absorb magic, this sword can negate it." Merlin explained.

"Negate it?" Sorin asked.

"Yes, any magic that touches that blade will vanish as if it never existed. Anyone that has magic can feel the...wrongness of that sword." Merlin added.

The way Merlin had said that made Sorin frown. "But I don't feel anything from it." Sorin knew the answer that Merlin was going to give but he didn't want to hear it.

"Yes likely only someone who has no magical ability or potential can use that sword." Merlin responded.

Jonathan watched as Sorin made to unsheathe his sword then saw the wizard suddenly stop him. He looked a bit confused at Merlin's explanation of how those with magic could feel the wrongness from the blade. His gaze then switched to Sorin as the wizard said he had no magical ability nor potential whatsoever. "I don't feel anything from that sword either."

"Hmm... Not surprising. Your sword may not have a similar feeling to Sorin's. But I could tell immediately when I saw the two of you. Neither of you can use magic, my boy." Merlin explained. "Two Convergers with no magical abilities, each having a sword that can affect magic differently. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not."

Jonathan simply looked at Sorin. "But can he even know how to fight? Or use that sword?"

"Many Convergers from the Realm of Reality come with no knowledge on how to fight. It's something you must learn." Merlin said.

"I know how to fight." Jonathan simply replied. "Thanks for the help on my sword. Now I need to get used to it." He then walked out of Merlin's home, too distracted over the lack of magic and his circumstance being similar enough to Sorin's that he forgot to ask more of what he wanted to know from the wizard.

Merlin simply shook his head. "Such overconfidence. Riku, my boy, go after him and make sure he doesn't fall prey to the Heartless."

Riku didn't look surprised when Merlin pointed out Jonathan didn't have any magic. Having felt Sorin's sword firsthand then seeing how the other Converger's own blade worked, the Keyblade Master had his own suspicious regarding the weapons. What he hadn't expected was how he spoke about Sorin, as if his lack of experience in fighting was a bad thing, especially when being compared to him. The Keyblade Master glared at Jonathan as Merlin tried explaining it was natural, only for the former to leave after thanking the wizard and leave.

"I'll keep an eye on him." Riku replied and motioned at Sorin to follow him. He wasn't just going to leave the latter alone, especially when considering that the Converger did need combat experience. The Keyblade Master walked out of Merlin's home and searched for Jonathan. "He moves fast. We'll need to search for him."

As much as he didn't like to hear it, Sorin could only accept the truth. He had no magical ability what so ever. It was the very reason why he could wield his sword as it can negate any kind of magic that touched it. Honestly Sorin couldn't help but feel a little envious of Jonathan as while their circumstances are the same, their weapons were very different. Not only could Jonathan absorb magic and then throw it back out but the scimitar had a longer blade than Sorin's, making it more usable in battle.

Once Jonathan abruptly left, Sorin's thoughts on his situation were quickly changed to focus on the other Converger. He quickly followed after Riku as they went to go to search for him. While Jonathan said he knows how to fight, Sorin felt street fighting or learning martial arts while a good place to start was incredibly different than using a real weapon in a fight against monsters like the Heartless.

"You lead the way. My memories of this world from when I played the game aren't the best and that isn't even accounting for the differences between the game and reality." Sorin told Riku as he kept a hand on the hilt of his sword.

Jonathan didn't want to admit it but he felt annoyed and offended, being compared to Sorin. Mostly since he saw the latter as simply a normal, average joe who lived a normal life and never had to fight. Compared to himself who spent a few years as a delinquent, picking fights and surviving with injuries that made the normal person cry in pain.

He finally paid attention to his surroundings and realized he was halfway towards Ansem's castle. "Wow, I walked so far. How was I not-" Jonathan suddenly got his answer as several Shadows and three Soldier Heartless appeared, surrounding him.

He lifted up his scimitar and unsheathed it, then suddenly rushed at kicked a Shadow, punting it towards the rock wall. Jonathan then hit one of the Soldier's in the face with the hilt of the sword before grabbing its foot then swung it to his left, hitting three more Shadows with the body of the bigger Heartless then brought down his scimitar like a bat to slice at it

Riku nodded at Sorin and lead the way. He believed that with the way Jonathan was acting after the reveal of the other real world Converger's sword, that he was going to where the Heartless would appear as a way to prove himself. That brought a frown to the Keyblade master's face, bringing back memories of when he first left his home, Destiny Islands and his jealous towards Sora. He couldn't help but sympathize a bit with Jonathan, having gone through something similar before.

But that was why Riku knew he had to find him, to stop Jonathan from doing something stupid or that he would regret. He glanced back at Sorin, leading him down the path towards Ansem's castle. "It's the path here where Heartless would appear the most. I hope he's not fighting any right now."

Sorin followed after Riku as they made their way towards Ansem's Castle. It was a stunning sight that Sorin would have liked to take in if they weren't potentially trying to prevent Jonathan from being harmed by the Heartless that were likely to show up. And despite not saying it out loud to Riku, Sorin couldn't help but feel that it was very likely that the missing Converger would be under attack.

Unfortunately for them, Sorin's feelings were right on the money as Jonathan was already engaged in the battle. It was a smaller force than Sorin had been expecting but that was probably for the best, considering the lack of experience he and Jonathan had.

"I'm going in." Sorin told Riku before jumping into the battle himself. Shadows and a few Soldiers were probably the best way for him to get his feet wet in an actual fight and as Sorin did not want to be useless he had to get used to fighting real monsters. Griping his sword, Sorin drew and sliced through a Shadow in one movement. Holding the blade in a reverse grip Sorin spun to keep using his momentum and then cut through another Heartless as he made his way over to Jonathan. Even if the force of Heartless was small it was still better to keep together after all.

Jonathan continued fighting the Heartless, not having as much trouble as Riku and Sorin believed he would. With another slash from his scimitar, he took out the injured Soldier he had manhandled earlier followed by another slice at one of the Shadows. He blocked a kick from one of the other Soldiers and jumped to the side to avoid a clawing from a Shadow.

As Jonathan made to attack the weaker Heartless that tried to surprise him, it was already killed, by the sword of the recently arrived Sorin. This prompted a frown from the former as he gave an offhand backhand at a Shadow that tried to sneak attack his back without even looking at it.

"Thank you. But I had it under control." Jonathan replied, turning away from Sorin and the now arriving Riku to parry an attack from the other Soldier He suddenly grabbed it by the neck, pinning the Heartless against the wall and bashed it with the hilt of his scimitar a few times before throwing it against the Shadows, bigger Heartless colliding with the smaller ones.

Riku frowned as he and Sorin arrived to find Jonathan already fighting a small group of Heartless. He was glad that it was the weaker variety at least and not more powerful Emblems that had ambushed the inexperienced Converger. But that was when he saw Sorin jump into the fray. "Wait, don't just charge ahead!"

But the Keyblade Master had called out too late. The other new Converger had just jumped in to help Jonathan, taking out his anti-magic sword. Riku considered joining in to finish the Heartless off, but he knew he couldn't babysit the two swordsmen when he had his own mission to deal with. As such, the Keyblade Master kept watch over the two, ready in case more powerful Heartless appeared or if the weaker ones tried ambushing both Jonathan and Sorin.

Sorin couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes at Jonathan's response. Seriously what is with this guy and his attitude? But Sorin had more important things to worry about right now so he turned his attention to the Heartless. Riku seemed to be standing back, seemingly to let the two of them have experience with the weaker Heartless. That was perfectly fine for Sorin. He wanted to see what he could do with this sword of his. What happened with Azumi didn't count after all so this was his first real battle.

Sorin watched the Heartless as he gripped his sword tighter. Compared to Jonathan's scimitar he didn't have the same range due to his sword's shorter length. That meant he had to get in closer which was always going to be more dangerous. That was something he was going to need to learn to deal with so now was the perfect time. He charged a Soldier and sliced it downward and then with a flick of the wrist he flipped his sword around to a proper grip and then slashed back. Then taking an idea from what he saw Jonathan do earlier he kicked it right in the face. The kick caused it to stumble back which let Sorin lunge in for a stab to finally fell it.

Sorin nodded to himself as he swung at a Shadow that came towards him. That kick felt good. With this short length of his blade, using some kicks might fit. Maybe a gauntlet or a second sword for his left hand as his sword wasn't really suited to being used with both hands. It was something to think about later though. Right now they had to deal with these Heartless.

Jonathan cut down a few more Shadows and the numbers of Heartless were down to two, both of them Shadows. One facing him and the other facing Sorin or were when the scimitar wielding swordsman kicked the one he was facing towards the one facing the other swordsman then charged and cut both of the creatures down. "Done. You were.... passable. But these were small fries. You'd have died if it was someone tougher, so let someone with actual experience in combat deal with them instead of getting yourself killed." He only gave Sorin a glance as he told him this then walked away from him. Jonathan walked towards Riku, a serious expression on his face. Despite his surprise at Riku following him as well, he wanted to ask why the hell he brought someone who never fought before to a dangerous place.

Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance as a growing shadow landed right on him hard. "Who the hell did that?!!" Jonathan growled angrily but couldn't get up due to the weight and because his arms were pinned down as well. He managed to glance up to find a creature encased in a spherical suit of armor with eight conical, black spikes spaced evenly over its surface. This armor is primarily colored in shades of green, with some yellow decorations on it. Its thin arms jut out of circular openings in the armor on either of its sides. Its spindly legs share a large, circular opening at the bottom of the armor, and the tips of its feet point upward. The Morning Star was it is called retracted its arms, replacing them with two large spheres covered in spikes then spun around.

The arms hit Jonathan hard but had the added effect of freeing him from being under the heavy armored Heartless by sending him flying away to a wall. Gritting his teeth, he got up and looked extremely angry, a furious glare focused at the Heartless, as two more Morning Stars appeared, followed by five Soldier Heartless. That didn't stop Jonathan from unsheathing his sword to attack the Heartless that hit him, only for another Morning Star to hit him while the third one went after Riku. As for the Soldier Heartless... they surrounded Sorin easily.

Back to Jonathan, he was having trouble fighting the armored Heartless. Because while he was used to fighting after all, they were against tough but unarmored opponents. Morning Stars were fully armored and used to moving around without having their speed affected by the weight, meaning the new Converger was having a bit of a challenge. There was no way Jonathan would ever admit he was having trouble with a fight, at all.

Riku frowned as he watched Jonathan walk towards him after the latter said a few words to Sorin. He couldn't hear what they were but could easily guess from their expressions. But before the Keyblade Master could open his mouth, he found the three ambushed by another group of Heartless, showing his fears had come true. At least three Morning Stars had appeared, which were too much for the two, inexperienced Convergers, as two of them focused on Jonathan and Sorin was surrounded by five Shadows. Summoning his Keyblade, Riku used his Dark Roll, momentarily turning into a ball of shadow that dashed towards the weaker Heartless, evading the remaining Morning Star at the same time.

As he materialized, he raised his Keyblade in the air and casted Thundaga twice, two rains of lighting falling down on the Soldier Heartless and easily taking them out. "Get to safety, I'll go rescue Jonathan." The Keyblade Master said before running towards the other two armored Heartless. He swung the Braveheart a few times before doing doing two spinning attacks, one of darkness and one of light which let him get the attention of the Morning Stars. Riku took advantage of this to cast Curaga, the healing magic not having effect on him currently but fully healing the injured Jonathan. He then grabbed the swordsman and pushed him towards where Sorin had gone, before switching his focus back on the three Morning Stars. The Keyblade Master didn't want any distractions right now so he could deal with the three remaining Heartless.