Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ To Save a Life ❯ The 3rd Day ( Chapter 3 )

To Save a Life

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters associated with Kingdom Hearts or Kingdom Hearts II. I'm merely borrowing them.

A/N: I've decided that this is going to take place over a five-day period so there will be a grand total of five chapters. I might write an epilogue, I might not. I watched the cutscenes pertaining to the Struggle several times and this is where I drew my inspiration for this chapter. I'll probably steal a wee bit of dialogue from them to make it seem believable. This chapter took a while for me to start because I wasn't exactly sure of where I wanted this to go. So what did I do? I started writing out the last chapter. This way, I knew where I wanted this to go so I could decide what had to happen in order to get there. I finally figured out that I needed only five chapters instead of seven. Don't worry; To Create a Life will be much bigger and so much longer. This is merely an…introduction to it. Sorry for rambling so much. I'll shut up now.

The 3rd Day

Roxas woke up when Sora jumped on his bed.

“Wake up Roxas! You're gonna be late!” he cried enthusiastically.

“Late? For what?” Roxas asked sleepily.

“Have you forgotten? The Struggle Tournament is today!”

“Oh shit!” Roxas groaned and shot up.

He shoved his twin out of the way and hurried to get dressed. He had promised to meet Hayner early so they could get some practicing in before the event. He was already late. He grabbed a banana for breakfast, said good morning to his mother, and shot out of the house. He was out of breath by the time he arrived at the Usual Spot, however it was deserted.

“Damn,” he breathed. “I must be really late.”

He left the Usual Spot and headed for the Sandlot, where the Struggle Tournaments always took place. There was a large group of people waiting there. In the middle was an elevated ring where the fighting took place. There were banners hanging down from the top of a nearby building with the town's crest and motto on it. Roxas skidded to a stop in front of Hayner, who was talking to Pence.

“I'm sorry I'm late,” he panted. “I overslept…”

Hayner turned, making it quite plain that he was ignoring Roxas. Roxas frowned. He hadn't meant to oversleep. The head of the tournament stepped forward.

“Are you guys ready for the biggest event of the summer?” The crowd cheered loudly. “Let's get ready to Struggle!” He stepped to the side, allowing the announcer to step forward.

“Let's introduce the four guys who made it past the preliminaries. First up, Seifer, the head of the Twilight Disciplinary Committee. He's a regular finalist,” he said. He motioned to a older boy with blond hair hidden underneath a large black hat. He was dressed in a blue shirt that showed his middle, a pair of ripped jeans, and a sleeveless vest over it. “Next, the enigmatic and out-of-nowhere surprise, Vivi!” Vivi was a strange creature hidden almost completely beneath a large straw mask. He wore a long-sleeved blue shirt and green cargo pants. “Third, the underground favorite and the kid with an attitude problem, Hayner.” Hayner glared.

Well, he's got that right. Roxas thought. Hayner glared in his direction. He lowered his eyes. He felt really bad about breaking his promise to Hayner.

“Finally, my absolute favorite customer, Roxas!”

People cheered loudly. The trophy was showed off, a rather pretty work of art with five crystals hanging off, one green, one red, one yellow, one pink, and one blue. Also showing off was the reigning champion, Setzer. He was very popular, especially with the ladies. The rules were explained: they would attack each other with rubber sticks until one of them was left standing. The pairings were decided.

“First match: Roxas VS Hayner,” the announcer called.

Roxas groaned softly. Fate REALLY didn't like him. Not only was his best friend mad at him, he would now have to face said angry best friend in the first round. Only one of them could move on so one of them would have to be hurt. The only question was: who?

The two of them got into the ring. The official handed each of them a rubber stick and gave them a friendly pat on the shoulder. Then, he moved to the side. Hayner turned to Roxas and held up his rubber stick. Roxas looked away, sadly. He really didn't want to do this. He looked up at Hayner.

“Look, I'm sorry,” he said.

“What? You still bugged about it? You need to learn to let stuff like that go. It's cool.” Hayner scratched his head.
“I've had a lot on my mind,” Roxas said.

“I'm sorry man.” Hayner blinked. “Wait. What am I sorry for?!” he grinned at Roxas. Roxas's face instantly brightened.

“This first match is between Roxas and his best friend Hayner. Two will go in but only one will come out. Let's find out who! Gentlemen, you may begin!”

Hayner immediately went on the offensive, but Roxas managed to block his attack before it went through. He countered with a few good hits that sent Hayner flying back. Hayner charged forward only to be blocked again by Roxas. When he attacked again, Roxas ran back to create a large distance between them. He waited, ready to attack. He parried Hayner's next attack then followed up with a series of short jabs. While Hayner was trying to recover from the blow, he charged forward to attack. Then, something distracted him. He thought he had seen a very familiar red head in the crowd. Hayner, taking advantage of Roxas's momentary distraction, went on the offensive.

“How's this?!” he asked. Roxas twisted around just in time to miss the majority of Hayner's blow, but it still caught him in the ribs.

Damn it. He thought, stumbling backwards. He had to focus. Now!! He charged forward, taking Hayner off guard. He slashed Hayner's side and pushed him back. He could see Hayner tiring and took advantage of it. A few more blows and Hayner was stretched out on his back, admitting defeat.

“Arg I lost?!” he asked. Roxas ignored the cheering and ran over to him. Hayner got up. “I guess I taught you well.” He smiled ruefully. Roxas returned the smile.

“The winner is…Roxas!” the announcer called. Roxas smiled and waved briefly to the crowd before getting the hell out of there. He sat down on a bench to catch his breath while Vivi and Seifer went at it.

“Hey Roxas!” A very familiar voice called. Roxas looked up and let out a low groan.

“Axel,” he greeted the red head coldly. He stared at the two people accompanying Axel. Both wore the same black cloaks as Axel and one of them was Zexion, but the other, a blond boy was unfamiliar. “Who's your friend?”

“Oh. Roxas, this is Demyx. Demy, this is Roxas, you know, the one I told you about,” Axel said with a grin.

The boy named Demyx's eyes lit up. “Oh. Right.” He smiled warmly at Roxas. “It's a pleasure to meet you.”

Roxas carefully studied Demyx. His blond hair was styled like a mullet almost and his sea green eyes were filled with kindness. Roxas ignored the fighting going on behind him.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded of Axel.

Axel shrugged. “I always come to the Struggle Tournaments to see what they're like. They're quite interesting. This year, I've dragged along Zex and Demy for the ride.”
“I see.”

Suddenly, the crowd quieted. Roxas turned to see what had happened and noticed Seifer flat on his back.

“Did Vivi do that?” he wondered softly.

“That's weird. When did that little runt become so tough?” Hayner crossed his arms.

“Good luck fighting that one.” Axel laughed.

“Okay. I guess Vivi is the winner!” The announcer said.

Seifer slowly got to his feet and walked out of the arena.

“That's not Vivi,” he said harshly as he and his cronies moved past Roxas and the others. His eyes met Roxas's and Roxas could see betrayal in them. “Thrash him.” Roxas nodded.

Nervously, he made his way up to the ring where Vivi waited for him. One of them was going to face the champion Setzer. The official handed each of them their rubber sticks.

“Keep it clean you two,” he warned them.

Roxas and Vivi faced off.

“Begin!” the announcer called.

Roxas immediately went on the offensive. He slashed a few times at his opponent before being forced to retreat. Vivi was fast. He was very fast. Several times, Roxas was forced to run away so he wouldn't be hit by Vivi. And when the little guy did hit him, it really hurt. Roxas parried Vivi's attack and countered with a slash. Vivi flew backward. While he was stunned, Roxas went in and attacked. He didn't expect Vivi to leap to his feet and attack so rapidly. He flew back and hit the dirt.

“Get up Roxas!” someone screamed.

Vivi was coming. He brought his rubber stick down for an attack. Roxas narrowly rolled away in time and Vivi missed. He swung the rubber stick around and caught Vivi unaware in the ribs. Vivi went flying and didn't get up. A count was taken and Roxas was declared the winner.

“All right Roxas!” Axel cheered loudly.

Setzer stepped forward. He was handed a rubber stick.

“Hey rucksack,” he called. “Why don't you throw the match for me? Let me win and I'll make it worth your while.” His purple eyes gleamed.

“Get real!” Roxas yelled. He took a fighting stance.

“Very well then,” Setzer said in a bored tone.

Fortunately for Roxas, Setzer was a pompous fool who liked to hear himself talk. He was a good fighter, Roxas would give him that, but his moves were easy to read. Roxas blocked them with ease. While Setzer was stunned, Roxas attacked. Even Setzer's more serious jabs were easy to dodge. Roxas took care of him easily.

“I'm not supposed to lose,” Setzer muttered. He walked away.

The crowd cheered Roxas's name. Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Naminé ran forward. Olette and Naminé both hugged him. Roxas was handed the trophy and the champion's belt.

“Let's get some sea salt ice cream and celebrate!” Olette said enthusiastically. They started to head for their other hangout—the clock tower.

“Sure. I'll be right there,” Roxas replied. He turned as Axel came up to him. “What do you want?”
“To see you,” Axel replied. “I know you're going out with your little friends right now and I'm not going to get in the way of them. But I wanna see you again Roxas. Is that okay?”
“Why?” Roxas asked so angrily.

“That's what I wanna find out.” Axel stepped forward and unexpectedly brushed some hair out of Roxas's face. Roxas wanted to yell at him to get away, but he didn't. He stared up into Axel's bright green eyes and Axel stared back.

“Axel what are you…mmmmng…” Roxas protested as Axel came closer. He wasn't expecting Axel to kiss him like that. It was only a quick kiss, but Roxas's face was flushed when Axel pulled away.

“See you for breakfast tomorrow,” Axel said softly. He walked away. Demyx looked at Zexion, surprised and then the two of them followed their friend.

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Roxas's face was still incredibly flushed when he met his friends at the top of the clock tower ten minutes later. Clutching the trophy and belt close to him, he was in his own little world as he sat next to Naminé.

“Hey Roxas!” Olette called.

Roxas jerked up. Olette handed him a sea salt ice cream bar.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I'm fine,” Roxas answered dazedly.

“Your face is flushed. Did something happen?” Naminé asked.

“Uh…no. I just…got a lot of sun,” Roxas lied.

“You shouldn't go out in the sun very much,” Naminé said. “It's not good for you.”
“Jeez Naminé, you sound like his mother,” Hayner commented.

Naminé laughed softly. “I guess I do. I'm sorry Roxas.”
“Hey, it's okay. I'm glad at least someone cares about me.” Roxas mock-glared at Hayner. All of them laughed. “I've got something for everyone.” Roxas carefully broke the crystals off the trophy and handed them out, green for Pence, red for Hayner, yellow for Olette, and pink for Naminé, and blue for him. At the same time, all of them held up their crystals so the light filtered through.

“Thanks.” Naminé smiled.

“Another treasure for us to share.” Hayner grinned.

The teens fell silent and ate their sea salt ice cream. No more words were needed.

To be continued…

A/N: I hope the battle scenes were okay. I'm not really good at writing that sort of thing. Hmm, what else is there for me to say? Told ya Demyx would be in this. He's going to be in the next chapter too. I hope. I like him. And Zexion of course. Reviews help me to update faster! Only two chapters left. Wow, I hope I can wrap things up in that short period of time. I'm sure I can. The last two chapters will probably be long because A LOT is going to happen in them. You'll see what I mean in due time.