Kingdom Hearts ~another side~ Ch. 3

[Hayate]

The power to be strong and the wisdom to be wise… All these things will come to you in time…

Kingdom Hearts ~another side~

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~ Report 3: Sons of Man ~

“Aah!”

With a rather girlish yelp, Roche falls through to the other side of the Corridor of Light -- which had opened up to him in Aubade Town -- and lands in a dilapidated, long-since-abandoned tree house. Falling face-down onto the heavily splintered flooring, he picks himself up to observe the unfamiliar setting. “Wha…? Where…?”, Roche whimpers in his disorientation. Looking straight ahead then, he takes notice of the white portal he’d fallen through, hypnotized by the swirling light within. His eyes widen with panic, however, as the portal begins to close. “W-Wait!” Roche scrambles to his feet and runs madly toward the shrinking Corridor.

Alas, this would prove to be a wasted effort, as the portal reduces to a size too small for Roche to fit through by the time he reaches it. Within just seconds, the light vanishes without a trace.

“No! Come back!”, cries the young Key bearer, scratching and pounding at the wall. “I gotta go back there! They need my help! Open up!” As his shouts fall on deaf ears, Roche slumps to his knees. “…Now what do I do…? Sis… Ciel…” In the face of his situation, the boy was all but ready to collapse in tears.

A wicked entity prowling nearby wouldn’t have that. “Grrrr…”

The growling reaches Roche’s ears, prompting him to spin around and draw his Keyblade. With his feet planted firmly on the wooden floor, he keeps his weapon at the ready. “…”

After several moments of heart-pounding silence, an animal-like mass moves swiftly across the rafters above, more swiftly than Roche’s eyes could follow. And with a fearsome roar, it pounces down!

“Whoa!” Roche quickly leaps away before his flesh is dug into by claws…

…and stands opposite a leopard with yellow fur and black spots. The jungle cat bares her razor-sharp fangs at Roche and growls menacingly.

While Roche was no stranger to danger, he’d never faced anything quite so threatening. “N-Nice kitty…”, he says in a feeble attempt to appease the beast.

The leopard pounces a second time.

Roche rolls out of the way once again, causing the beast to dig its claws into a nearby wall. With its defenses dropped, Roche grabs the leopard’s tail and flings her across the room into a pile of broken wood and glass. She quickly returns to her feet, and Roche follows up by blasting spheres of fire at her. The leopard sprints around the room, dodging the fireballs effortlessly, rebounds off of a wall, and jumps at Roche a third time.

This time, the claws hit their mark, and Roche is slashed along his right shoulder. “Gah!” Roche falls to one knee and presses his hand to the wound.

The jungle cat found herself even hungrier at the scent of the boy’s blood. She growls quietly in bloodlust-driven anticipation.

Ignoring the pain in his arm, Roche climbs to his feet and readies the Superquake again. “…”

With a gaze that screamed ‘time to eat!’, the leopard springs forward once more.

“!!!”

Just then… “Grah!” …a second figure -- a barely clothed figure -- swoops in from the right and drives its feet into the leopard’s side, causing her to careen into the back wall.

A shocked Roche looks on at his savior -- a heavily-tanned loincloth-wearing man appearing to be in his early 20s. His brown hair hung from the sides of his head in dreadlocks, and he had a moderately muscular build. In his left hand was a makeshift spear, fashioned from a sharp rock and a thin tree branch.

As she recovers from the collision, the leopard growls angrily at her attacker.

The man in the loincloth growls back with a series of unintelligible grunts and hoots, like that of a primate.

“What the…?”

Weakened and now outnumbered, the yellow-furred beast beats a hasty retreat through a broken window.

Roche exhales a relieved sigh and faces his rescuer. “Thanks a lot, mister. I thought I was done for.”

The man turns to face Roche in reply. Saying nothing, he simply stares intently at him.

His stare causes Roche a degree of discomfort. “…W-What?”, he asks awkward.

Still saying nothing, the brown-haired man encircles the boy, sniffing him and uttering more of his strange language.

Roche’s uneasiness heightens. “S-Sorry, I don’t understand. Um… Oh, boy…”

After a few seconds of his bizarre behavior, the man lays eyes upon Roche’s Keyblade. Its luster and intricate design captivates him. He reaches out in curiosity and presses his fingertips to the blade.

“Hey, what are you…!?”

Reacting to the wild man’s touch, the Superquake gives off a blinding flash of light that engulfs both him and Roche. Energy is briefly shared between the two, and the light shortly disappears.

The man in the loincloth jumps away, shaken and alarmed by the odd sight. “What was that!?”, he barks. “What did you just do to me!?”

“I didn’t do anything!”, Roche defends. “It was…! …Wait. You can understand me?”

“Understand you? How do you understand me? Who are you? You’re no ape I’ve seen before.”

“Ape?” The man’s native language must be that of apes, Roche deduces. Through the magic of the Keyblade, a communication gap must’ve been bridged. “…I’m Roche.”

“Where’d you come from?”

“Somewhere that’s…faraway. I’m…lost, I guess.”

“Where’s your family?”

“I… I dunno. We got separated.”

“…” While the boy’s answers were vague at best, the brown-haired man seemed to sympathize with his plight. “…I’m Tarzan. And don’t worry. I’m sure you and your family find each other soon enough.”

“Yeah, but…they probably don’t even know I’m here.”

“I see. Well, they must be worried about you a great deal. And that concern will surely lead you to them again. Don’t lose heart.”

“Heart… Okay. Thanks, Tarzan.”

“Alright then. Come on, we shouldn’t stay here. And you shouldn’t be alone in the jungle with Sabor out there.”

“Sabor?”

“The leopard I just chased off.”

“Oh.”

“Let’s head to the nest. You can meet my family. Be warned though -- there are other dangers in the jungle besides Sabor. Think you can handle it?”

“Definitely! As long as I’ve got the Keyblade, I can take on anything!”

“Hmm. We’ll see.”

The ape man called Tarzan leads Roche out of the tree house through the balcony, where Roche is treated to a breathtaking view of the sun-dappled jungle. “Wow…!”, he marvels.

“Well? You coming or aren’t you?”

Off to the side, Roche sees Tarzan already making his way down, climbing over the balcony’s ledge and jumping to the trees.

“…Heh!” An over-eager Roche follows, stepping onto the wooden railing and taking a bountiful leap into the sea of green below.

Past the dense cover of trees and vines, Roche and Tarzan make their way through the jungle, so far without incident. All the while, the little Keyblade wielder is awestruck by the forest’s sights and sounds. Roche had always been the adventurous type, and he’s loved climbing trees for as long as he’d lived; this jungle could not have been a more fitting environment. “You really live here, Tarzan?”

“Mm-hmm. My whole life.”

“Cool…”

“It’s not the safest place to live, but the others and I get by. As long as Kerchak is here to protect us.”

“Kerchak? Is that your leader or something?”

“Yup. He’s also my father. Kerchak’s truly amazing. He’s strong, brave, protective. The good of the herd always comes first to him. If only I could be half the ape he is…”

“But you’re plenty strong, Tarzan! And brave too! If it wasn’t for you, I’d be cat food by now!”

“Hmm…” Not that Roche’s kind words didn’t get through, but Tarzan still seemed down. “…?” Just then, his nose hairs start to twitch. He catches the scent of something strange in the air. In response, he brandishes his javelin. “…Watch out! Mal’yat!”

“Molly what?”

“GET DOWN!”

Per Tarzan’s order, Roche leans over, allowing the ape man to chuck his weapon. The spearhead pierces a figure in midair, traveling through its form and leaving nothing but black dust. Turning around, Roche takes notices of several more figures, all with black mouth-less faces and yellow eyes, surrounding him and Tarzan. Some were of standard Shadow fare, while others resembled monkeys. “Heartless!”, exclaims Roche, drawing his Keyblade forth.

Tarzan retrieves his spear as he and Roche are thrust into battle again. Roche easily cuts through the horde of Shadows, but the movement and attack patterns of the Powerwilds and Bouncywilds would catch him off-guard. Those particular Heartless would fall by Tarzan’s hands instead.

Once the battle reaches a point at which only one Powerwild remained, it turns tail and retreats into the thick brush.

“That one’s getting away!”, states Roche, preparing to give chase.

Tarzan cuts him off however. “Hold on.”, he starts, bearing a smirk. “…Just wait.”

At that moment, Roche hears something akin to a bugle call. Just seconds later, he witnesses the fugitive Powerwild’s swift return through the bushes.

Quickly following the fleeing Heartless was an elephant, its trunk producing the aforementioned bugle-like sound. On its back was a female gorilla with dark hair. As if directing the elephant, she bellows, “CHARGE!!!”

“Yikes!”

With a mighty trumpet, the red-haired mammoth coils its trunk around the Heartless’ midsection and flings it violently into a tree.

The Powerwild shatters into black particles immediately upon impact.

“Yeah!”, the gorilla shouts in triumph. “That’s right, you overgrown roaches! This is our house! Anyone else want some o’ this!?”

“Enjoying yourself, Terk?”

“Eh?” The gorilla Terk glances down from the mammoth’s back and meets Tarzan face-to-face. Her subsequent expression spoke volumes of annoyance. “Well, well, look who decided to show up!” Climbing up, she jumps from her ‘ride’ and lands softly in the grass below on her feet. “Real nice o’ ya to split right when we’re up to our necks in Mal’yat! You’re lucky I was there to take charge of the situation!”

“You took charge!?”, the elephant interrupts. “I did all the work while you barked orders from my ‘passenger seat’!”

“It’s called management, Tantor.”, Terk argues. “This ship needs at least one captain, and it sure as heck ain’t you. No offense.”

“Yeah, well, if I get turned into a Mal’yat ‘cuz of your so-called ‘management’, we’ll see whose backside you’ll have to ride around on then!”

Roche had almost laughed at the comedy act playing out before him. Addressing Tarzan, he asks, “Friends of yours?”

“Heh. Unfortunately.”

“…Hey.”, Terk starts again. “Who’s the new kid? He kinda looks like a pint-sized you. Except, you know, with more covering.”

Tantor shies away. “H-He’s not a Mal’yat, is he…?”

“Don’t worry, he’s not. Terk, Tantor, this is Roche. He got separated from his herd, so I’m kinda looking after him for a bit.”

“Hi.”, Roche greets with a smile.

“Tarzan babysitting, huh? Never thought I’d see the day.” For all her wittiness, Terk was elated to meet a new face all the same. Walking over, she drapes an arm over his shoulder. “Pleased to meet ya, kid. Name’s Terk. Any bud o’ Tarzan’s is a bud o’ mine!”

“Tantor. Charmed, I’m sure.”

“Same here. …So…what’s a ‘Mal’yat’…?”

Tarzan’s expression sours. “Those black-faced monsters that just attacked us. They’ve been terrorizing the entire jungle for the past couple of months. We’re not completely sure what they are, so we just call them ‘Mal’yat’ -- the ‘yellow-eyed ones’.”

“You mean the Heartless?”

“‘Heart…less’…? Is that what your herd calls them?”

“U-Uh… Yeah.”

“Oh! What dreadful creatures!”, enters Tantor in a quiver. “They’ll eat just about anything they can get their claws on, sometimes even their own kind! Not even the leopards are safe! What’s more, they can even turn other animals into Mal’yat once they’re dead!”

“…Just like zombies…”

“We’ve managed to stave off the Mal’yat in small increments, and we’re constantly on the move, but their numbers increase with each passing day. In another month or so, they’ll have taken over everything, and not a single normal being will be left…!”

“Tarzan…”

“Way to drop morale to an all-time low, ‘Captain Bringdown’…”

Roche wouldn’t hear any talk of hopelessness. “Don’t talk like that, Tarzan!”

“Roche…?”

“This is your home, isn’t it? Didn’t you say you’ve lived here your whole life? You shouldn’t give up just ‘cuz you’re outnumbered 100-to-one! If you want your friends and family to survive, you gotta fight! Fight ‘til you can’t fight anymore!”

“…That’s exactly what I’ve been doing since the Mal’yat first appeared, Roche. There’s only so much one ape can handle alone.”

“But you’re not alone. You’ve got Terk, Tantor, the rest of your herd…and now me.”

Roche’s words had a blatant innocence about them, which was understandable considering his age, but strangely enough, Tarzan could feel his depression lifting. It was a slow but sure ascent out of despair. “…Hmph. Alright, Roche. You have my attention.”

“Listen. I’ve been fighting the Heartless for a long time now. I’ve picked up on how they think, how they act. Usually, they operate in groups of no more than twenty. But for this many to work together -- and so well -- there has to be someone or something controlling them from faraway. Do the Heartless have a place in the jungle they go off to when they’re done hunting for food?”

Tantor replies, “Well, Terk and I sometimes see them going off toward Dark Mountain.”

“I bet that’s where the pack leader is. Instead of waiting for the Heartless to come here, I say we go up to Dark Mountain, track down whatever’s pulling the Heartless’ strings, and take the fight to it! We can liberate the jungle in one fell swoop!”

The boy’s words were beginning to affect even Terk. “I like this kid!”, she comments. Jabbing at Tarzan with her elbow, she continues, “Where’ve ya been hiding him this whole time?”

“I dunno…”

“Don’t you wanna prove to Kerchak you have what it takes to protect your family, and you’re just as much the ape he is?”

“…” Tarzan lowers his head and has a moment of silence to himself. It had indeed been a goal of his to gain his father’s approval. But the ape man lacked experience. He was far from Kerchak’s equal; chances were he never would be. Still, the jungle and all who called it home was facing a dire threat. And Tarzan couldn’t help but ask himself: Which was more important? The welfare of the jungle, or a father’s love?

Terk and Tantor are stricken with an identical silence, hinging on his next thought.

“…Hmph.” Tarzan raises his head to meet Roche’s eye, his gaze steeled. “…Come with me.”

“Huh? Where are we going?”

“…To see Kerchak.”

Roche’s heart skips a beat. The thought of meeting Tarzan’s father and leader of his herd was far from what he’d expected the day to bring. It was safe to say, however, that this wasn’t like most days. As he swallows the lump in his throat, Roche follows, with Terk and Tantor close behind.

“…How long until after he meets Kerchak do you think he’ll wet himself?”, jokes Terk.

With a narrowed brow, Tantor responds, “I give him a minute. Two minutes tops.”

It wouldn’t be a terribly lengthy trek to the gorillas’ den, but the steady onrush of Heartless made the journey longer than what was preferred. In just under half an hour’s time, the group reaches the den at last, and Roche finds himself in the presence of a black-haired ape almost twice his own height. Ape leader Kerchak leans forward on his enormous arms and confronts the little Key bearer and Tarzan. “You would bring this…outsider to our den!?”, he challenges. “Have you no concern for your family’s safety!? How could you be so irresponsible!?”

“Roche isn’t an outsider.”, Tarzan challenges back, albeit more calmly. “He’s just a fellow ape who’s lost his way. All I’m doing is helping him find it again.”

“You know nothing about him OR his herd! He could be a Mal’yat in disguise!”

Unease brews amongst the surrounding apes at the mere mention of the Heartless.

“I may not know him well, but I’ve seen his strength firsthand! It’s almost…otherworldly. Roche has much experience combating the Mal’yat, and I believe, with his help, we can free the jungle of them! Isn’t that what’s most important?”

“What’s most important is that we survive!”

“Kerchak!”

In response to Tarzan’s defiance, Kerchak lets out a furious bellow that echoes to the treetops. An assortment of birds takes flight and flaps away in fear of the sound. Tarzan stands his ground however. Realizing his refusal to budge, Kerchak turns his scowl on Roche. “You claim you lost your family? I don’t believe you. Why are you really here?”

“I-I…” As his lower lip trembles and his knees knock together, the boy struggles to string his thoughts into coherent speech. “I just… I just want to go back home!”

“…”

“But… I know how much trouble the Heart-- I mean, Mal’yat cause. If there’s a way I can help, I’ll do it! ‘Cuz it’s what my sister would do! Just gimme a chance!”

Kerchak’s angry scowl lingers, and the fear in Roche’s eyes was evident to him. But there was something else in the boy’s eyes. A faint something that Kerchak had only seen before in Tarzan. Determination. Purpose. Will to live. The boy may have been considerably young, but he had a heart as big as Kerchak’s, if not bigger. “…” The anger in his expression lessens and he exhales a sigh. Turning his back to the two, he looks to his mate and Tarzan’s mother, the brown-haired Kala.

Looking back, Kala gives an encouraging smile.

In the face of such warmth, Kerchak could say nothing in his defense. With his back still turned to Tarzan and Roche, he briefly addresses them. “…You will do what you can about the Mal’yat. You will see them driven from our home. And once you’ve done that…you will leave this jungle as well.”

Roche simply looks on as Kerchak takes his leave, puzzled whether his words signified consent or rejection. “Um… I don’t think your dad likes me.”, he comments…

…to which an off-to-the-side Terk has a short laugh to herself. “Don’t sweat it. Kerchak doesn’t like anybody.”

“He just has trouble expressing himself openly.”, Tarzan explains. “But he sees your resolve as well as I do. And he wants to see how far it’ll take you. …So what do you say, Roche? Wanna show Kerchak what we’re made of?”

“Yeah! Next stop: Dark Mountain!”

…Elsewhere, in a spacious gorge that formed the base of the mountain, whole herds of Shadows and Powerwilds jump and howl as they bear witness to an exhilarating power struggle.

To one side of the conflict was the always ferocious Sabor. She slowly paces along the edge just inside the circle of Heartless. Cuts and spots of bloodied fur line her feline form.

In the other corner was her opponent: a panther with fur as black as the night sky. Its eyes glow a bright shade of gold, and its breaths were of blackened mist.

Sabor bares her fangs as she lunges forth.

The panther’s body suddenly becomes like liquid, black in appearance and fluid in substance, allowing for Sabor’s claws to pass through harmlessly. The beast reassumes its solid form behind Sabor, a position from which it easily tears into Sabor’s flesh.

The leopard growls in pain, and she hits the ground yet again.

The crowd of Heartless maintains its excited cries.

After several moments of throbbing agony, Sabor returns to her feet and glares at her opponent.

The black panther lets out a defiant growl, as if saying “this is my territory, stay out”.

Faced by not only an unusual enemy but also its legion of followers, the leopard turns tail and runs before suffering further injury.

The panther roars to the sky in victory, the cries of its Heartless minions growing louder.

From a moderate distance away, Tarzan and Roche watch through a crevice in the gorge wall. Roche’s brows droop as Sabor makes her escape. “I almost feel sorry for her…”, he comments partly to himself.

“That must be the Mal’yat leader.”, says Tarzan, referring to the panther. “But there must be dozens of Mal’yat out there. How do we get rid of them all?”

Roche readies his weapon as the blade burns with the color of flame. “Leave that to me.”, he assures with a grin.

Still keyed up from its win over the jungle cat Sabor, the panther Heartless turns its head toward the sound of something whizzing through the air.

A solitary fireball makes contact with and incinerates a Powerwild. Its pained hoots and shrieks echo for all of three seconds until its heart is liberated.

The panther looks upward and sees a multitude of additional fireballs in the first one’s wake. As it leaps out the volley’s vicinity, the Heartless army falls prey to the scorching rainfall. Looking puzzled, the panther gazes at the powdery remains of its army and finds itself confronted by the Keyblade-wielding Roche and the ape man Tarzan. It snarls angrily over its legion’s decimation and clenches the pebbles at its feet.

Roche points the Superquake toward the panther, effectively issuing a challenge. “This is it, you Heartless creep!”, the lad boldly proclaims. “Nowhere to run and no minions to hide behind! It’s just you and us!”

Tightening his grip on the shaft of his weapon, Tarzan announces similarly, “Today, my family will be free of you monsters!”

The black-furred beast roars in acceptance of the challenge. It spreads out its paws and crouches down, poised to attack or defend if need be.

[BGM: Dance to the Death]

With a grunt, Tarzan leads the attack, vaulting upward to strike from above, while Roche rushes forward on the ground. As he descends, Tarzan thrusts his spear down. The panther easily evades the attack with a short leap to the side. While the cat’s attention was focused on Tarzan, Roche jumps in from the side. He swings the Keyblade in a spinning left-to-right arc. Like before with Sabor, the panther’s body becomes like liquid, and the Keyblade passes through it. It reassumes a solid form and scratches at Roche’s back. The lad staggers briefly, but Tarzan picks up his slack, jumping at the panther with a series of quick swings and thrusts. The panther ducks and weaves past Tarzan’s attacks, save for several grazes here and there. When Tarzan thrusts low, the black beast slams its paw onto the spear where the tip of the shaft met the base of the blade. Now open to attack, Tarzan receives a claw slash to the chest, causing him to recoil. The panther’s level of speed and agility clearly exceeded that of her opponents. Realizing this, Roche and Tarzan elect to combine their efforts, double-teaming the nimble beast with a joint Keyblade/spear assault. The persistence of their attacks and elegance of their movement overwhelm the feline Heartless, driving it consistently backward and cutting into its stamina. In angered retaliation, the panther slams its front paws onto the ground, pushing the two back with a short-range shockwave.

Tarzan and his adolescent ally recover a handful of meters away. “It’s strong…!”, the ape man observes. “And its abilities are so unearthly…!”

“Think so…?”, rebuts Roche with a short chuckle. “These guys are pretty common where I come from.”

“…Really…?”

“Look out! Here it comes again!”

“!!!” Taking a defensive stance, Tarzan readies his spear just in time to shield himself from the panther’s incoming attack. It digs its sharp claws into the wood and lunges at Tarzan’s face with its fangs. From the panther’s body weight, Tarzan is driven onto his back, his weapon the only thing between him and certain death.

“Bad kitty!”, Roche shouts, attempting to swat the Heartless away with a vertical sword swing to its midsection. Once again, the panther liquefies its body to escape the boy’s strike: a spectacle to which Roche could only grit his teeth. “Not again!”

The black mass of slime leaps away for the Heartless to solidify, but rather than settle for simply solidifying, the slippery mass splits in half and takes the form of two identical black panthers.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…!”, gripes the Keyblade wielder.

The twin panthers go on the prowl, assailing Roche and Tarzan faster than they could react. With the number of attacks received, the two drop to their knees in helplessness. “Is… Is there no way to win this…!?”

“S-Sis…!”

Its opponents’ defeat imminent, the two panthers liquefy once more to reassume a single form. As the two masses of liquid converge…

“!!!” …Tarzan takes the initiative and tosses his javelin.

As the weapon sails through its liquid form, the beast convulses violently, and its high-pitched fluctuating wail echoes across the chasm.

“I see now!”, exclaims Tarzan. “It’s more flexible in that liquid state, but it’s also when it’s most vulnerable!”

“Oh, yeah?”, Roche exhales as he rises to his feet. “That gives me an idea!”

The panther Heartless resumes its solid form and looks ahead, taking immediate notice of the attacking Roche. It widens its stance, and -- to Roche’s eyes -- its body becomes almost wavy, as if in that in-between state of solid and liquid.

‘Perfect!’ With a grin of confidence, Roche presses his palm to the Superquake’s blade. In response, the blade gives off a gentle light-blue aura.

In the moments that follow, the boy would swing his weapon horizontally, and the Heartless would predictably evade through the liquefaction of its body. During the attack, however, Roche expels a burst of frigid air from the Keyblade, freezing the panther within that state with a show of Blizzard magic. “Gotcha!”

“Nice!”

The battle would be far from over, however, as the chunks of ice-encased Heartless that lined the ground at Roche’s feet begin to vibrate. In a few short moments, the panther would be freed.

“Not on my watch!”, Roche proclaims dramatically. Quickly pinpointing the fragment of ice that contained the Heartless’ emblem, he draws back for a second and thrusts the Keyblade into the emblem. The ice dissolves, and the panther returns to normal. A brief black aura envelops it and fades away, revealing the beast to be nothing more than a regular jungle animal.

Just then, a gaseous sphere of black and purple lifts from the panther’s body and drifts upward. It sports the same yellow eyes as its Heartless kinfolk, along with a jagged red line that formed its mouth.

And like its fellow Heartless, this creature was all too familiar to Roche. “An Overshadower…!”

“Over…what?”

“It’s a type of Heartless. Pretty weak on its own, so it possesses other living things as hosts to do its bidding. It must’ve taken control of the panther’s body and made Heartless out of the other animals to protect itself.”

“Then we can’t let it get away! It’ll take over another animal’s body and start all over again!”

“Don’t worry. This just got a whole lot easier.” Roche twirls the Keyblade in his hand and points it at the fleeing Overshadower. A swirl of light encircles the tip and releases in the form of a ray beam.

The light strikes through without mercy, and the Heartless crumbles into dust, liberating its heart in the process.

Roche wipes the sweat from his brow and sighs with satisfaction. “It’s over…”

Tarzan sighs similarly, lowering his spear. “Yeah… You really are a remarkable kid, Roche. I owe you one.”

“Heh. No problem. …I just wish I’d found Sis and Ciel by now…”

As if responding to Roche’s heartfelt wish, a flicker of light from the Keyblade causes a Corridor of Light to open up before him.

“Whoa… It’s that same door from before…! Is the Keyblade guiding me…?”

“Hmph. I had my suspicions.”

“Suspicions?”

“Earlier, you told me you were from somewhere ‘faraway’. But I’m guessing you weren’t talking about the far end of the jungle, right?”

“…” Roche hides his look of shame. “I… I didn’t mean to lie to you.”

“You don’t have to apologize. You value your family’s privacy just as I value mine. And right now…your family’s waiting for you to return home. Don’t keep them waiting.”

“…Thanks, Tarzan.”

“No. Thank you, Roche. I, my herd, the entire jungle -- we all owe you a great debt of gratitude. I hope you find your family again soon…abalu.”

‘Abalu’. A word in the ape language meaning ‘brother’, ‘friend’. Roche smiles at the sentiment and bids a fond farewell to his new friend. He then turns to the Corridor, taking a deep breath before stepping inside, praying that the path inside was the path that led home.

~ Next Report: Rustle in the Silence ~