Spar for the course
It’s a glorious spring day in Radiant Garden. The sun shines in an azure sky and makes the edges of the two clashing keyblades of two brothers in arms glisten and shine. The sparks from their clashing keyblades fly in spectacular bursts leaving small smolders on the training grounds. I watch with wonder and awe, my heart burns with excitement and inspiration. Determination surges through my body, a will I’ve had for as long as I can remember to become a wielder and a guardian. I mimic every stance and every strike or at least I try to with a wooden mock keyblade that Terra made, one of many I strike with untrained hands. Ventus goes for a flurry attack but the flurry’s too quick for me to mimic. I watch as the flurry finishes and Terra goes in for a counter, after parrying all those jabs and slashes almost perfectly. I marvel at how Ventus is so fast with his blade, holding it backhanded like he does. However he pulls it off, it looks cool.
My father sits beside me on a bench near a tree and like me is absorbed in the battle. He’s here to be the referee but I know he’d rather be sparring with them instead. However, you can tell he is still enjoying the match as an unmistakable grin is stuck to his face. I start to wish that I too could battle and remember the bag of true keyblades, made out of magical metal, slumped by a statue at the corner of the grounds. They brought extras just in case they wanted to switch things up but the bag remains untouched. Because my father is too focused on the match, I’m able to sneak by the statue and open the bag. The match rages on, strikes clash in a tug of war back and forth back and forth, until Ven uses some wind magic to get some distance and go in for an aerial attack. As his blade smacks down to the floor narrowly missing its mark, I reach for the kingdom key, my father’s first keyblade. My hands fill the hilt almost perfectly and it feels so natural to hold. Before picking it up, I whisper “may my heart be my guiding key” and slowly lift the blade. It’s a bit heavy but I manage to raise it to shoulder level and attempt to copy another one of Ventus’s strikes. I mimic the strike almost perfectly and continue the combo, but the final strikes’ impact causes me to lose balance and with a thud land on the ground. Hearing the thud, my father turns around and comes to help me up. But I recover and try to swing again, the heaviness of the blade weighs me down once again and I fail to keep my balance.
“Xaveor be careful with the keyblade. Why don’t you practice with your wooden one instead I don’t want you to get hurt,” my father says as he helps me up.
“I won’t get hurt then. I lifted the kingdom key. I can learn to keep my swing in control. How can I learn to wield a keyblade in battle if I don’t hold it first?” I say, lifting the blade to prove my point. But it wavers and my arms struggle to keep it upward and level. He responds, “Xaveor, it’s clear you’re not ready yet you're struggling to keep the blade upright.” I lower the kingdom key and with a nod say, “I know but when will I be ready? I’m 9 almost 10. I’ve studied and practiced with the wooden blade and I know my heart is strong enough, I feel like it should’ve happened already.”
Having heard our little argument, Terra and Ven stopped their sparring session and came over to the statue. “Well those dents in your wooden blade are certainly proof of your learning,” says Ven. “I second that you definitely have the makings to be an apprentice, even a master with some experience Xaveor,”says Terra.
“But I want to be a guardian like you guys and help more on missions involving combat. I wanna be a guardian that can overcome any darkness!” I exclaim.
My father smiles and says, “and we’re sure you can become one but that doesn’t mean you have to rush. Take your time Xaveor. Not doing so might lead you to some dark dark places. Where the darkness may overpower you and leave you with remnants of it when you escape. We still have our remnants etched into our hearts I don’t want you to repeat our mistakes.”
“Like siding with master nort and Vanitas’s situation.” I remark. As a flash of shock runs through them before I step in again, “I may have read a few reports from Jiminy’s journal for uh let’s just say training purposes so that’s how I know.”
They exchange some glances before my father asks, “Were you looking for it specifically or did you just stumble upon it?”
“I was looking to see if there were any secret keyblade techniques recorded in Jiminy’s journal when the capital X caught my eye.” He sighs with notable relief. “Don’t go looking in Jiminy’s journal without his or my permission until you summon your first keyblade understand, Xaveor.”
“Yes dad. I guess I’ll look for a different book for keyblade techniques then and speaking of techniques you guys were spectacular!” I explain, motioning to Terra and Ven.
“Thanks Xaveor,” They say in unison.
“That flurry attack was awesome, Ven that move must’ve been hard to pull off especially because you hold your keyblade backhanded. How did you do it?”
Ven responds to my query with a slightly unsure tone to his voice “Well holding my keyblade backhanded has always felt natural to me and the flurry technique came from practice. A technique I know you probably already learned about while training so I can’t really help you with that.” I nod understanding with a determined smile. “I’ll learn it myself then I promise I’ll be a guardian who is able to wield a keyblade both backhanded and front handed. I bet with that skill I’ll be able to defeat any darkness that may come to destroy the worlds.” Ven smiles and so does my dad, ruffling my hair, saying “enthusiastic as ever Xaveor. I’m sure you can do it but first my little guardian you’ll have to summon your keyblade.”
“Good point. I wonder when the day will come...” I longingly look at the kingdom key wondering just wondering. Then as if reading my mind my father motions Ven and Terra to move out of the way and takes his spot behind me smiling.
“Well what are you waiting for, why not give summoning it another shot?” He asks encouragingly.
“Will do!”
As my father starts to raise his arm straight in front of him, hand outstretched,inviting me to mimic him. I do and he continues “Now imagine the kingdom key.”
“Got the image.”
“Good. Now you may need to close your eyes and that’s fine. All I want you to do is change the image of the kingdom key to what you desire your blade to look like. Got it?” I nod. Closing my eyes I try imagining my keyblade and the kingdom key starts to morph in my mind. A small confident smirk starts to crawl to my face as the keyblade finalizes it’s form “I have it!” I exclaim.
“Can you describe it to me?” He asks encouragingly and I say “Yes, yes I can. The hilt is a nice bright royal blue with a red and gold hand grip and has a wing-like design on the sides similar to the blade of wayward wind just smaller. In between the blade and the hilt lies an orb, the same color as the hilt with a white stripe through the middle and a gold crown on top which has a fancy looking X engraved on it. As for the blade itself, it's silver and hasn’t changed much from the kingdom key, the only difference being a hole in the middle of the crown shaped like the kanji for light hikari. Finally for the chain it’s platinum and has a diamond colored crown on the end almost translucent.”
“Sounds amazing now concentrate, steady yourself and with all your heart, will and soul call to the blade to appear in your hand,”he responds with a tone of hope,pride,wonder and joy.
I take a deep breath, concentrate and then whisper “May my heart be my guiding key.” Reaching out my hand as far as I could I continue to call my blade. It takes a while but I start to hear a slight whirring sound and then small little chimes ringing. I feel a bit of light touching my outstretched palm and I slowly begin to open my eyes. As I do, the warmth from the light starts to fade and is replaced with a cold metallic feeling. “You’re doing it Xaveor you’re doing it keep going I see the blade summoning itself!” My father says delighted and ecstatic. As I fully open my eyes and see everyone’s amazed faces, I see the light rays shooting out to infinity spinning and spinning and see that in the cloudy mist of the light that the hilt has formed in my hand. In amazed disbelief the only words I manage are, “I’m doing it I’m really doing it.” I continue to call the rest of the blade but it doesn’t form. I continue to call for it but still only the hilt is within my grasp. Then my strength finally gives out and the light disappears “I... I almost had it” I say defeated. My father comes over to comfort me. “Well you gave it your best shot and having the hilt is a good start but pulling a keyblade straight from your heart is a hard thing to do. It hasn’t been done since the age of fairy tales ,but I’m sure you’ll get it soon Xaveor. A great guardian doesn’t gain his worth through his blade but through his courage and his will to act in the face of evil.” I nod and determinedly say, “If the hilt is a good start, I’ll make it a great start next time.”
Then I pick up the wooden blade and say “This is good enough practice for now. Speaking of practice it’s time to start holding this back handed.”
Ven steps up, “Let’s get started then.” He takes my dad's place now going slightly more behind me “Now one thing you must remember about holding a keyblade backhanded or any blade backhanded for that matter is that the tip should be facing opposite your thumb so instead of the blade pointing in front of you it would be pointing behind you. Got it?” I nod and he smiles. “Great now hand me your blade and keep your arms and hands to your side just like normal.”
I hand him the blade and keep my arms to my side. Then after turning the blade in the right direction. “Ok now I’m going to slide the keyblade in between your hand and side all you need to do is grip the handle. Are you ready?” Ven then starts to slide the blade past my hand “1 2 3. grip!. Do you have it firmly in your grasp?” He asks.
“Yes I do.”
“Amazing now I’m gonna let go of the blade. Just control your grip on the handle and don’t squeeze too tight or else you’ll end up straining your wrist. Got it?” I nod. He lets go of the blade and after a bit he asks, “How does it feel?”
“Awkward but overall pretty good.” I say “Great now I want you to count in your head and I’ll count with you. I want to see how long you can last without resisting the urge to turn the blade front handed okay.” I nod and he says, “ready,set, count!”
I count with my left hand silently trying to resist the urge to spin it back around 5 seconds. 10. I make it to 15, but start to lose my grip. 20 seconds. My grip loosens gradually the urge gets louder and just as my counting reaches 25, I loosen up and flip the keyblade to its front hand position. Ven smiling and surprised says, “25 seconds not bad. Do you want to free your wrist a bit or should I keep going?”
I switch hands for a bit, quickly shake the tension off and say with a smile, “I’m ready bring it on Ven.” He smiles back as I flip the blade again “ It would be my pleasure Xaveor. Now when striking backhanded you can’t up slash do you know why?”
I become pensive for a bit and then say “Because you’d be hitting your opponent with the hilt and bridge instead of the actual blade.” “Bingo that’s correct so your only options are normal slashes and down strikes.” Ven then starts to demonstrate with his own keyblade as he talks.
“Normal slashes are pretty easy you just need to twist into it and back slashing just comes naturally when returning to your default stance.” He demonstrates and invites me to give it a shot. I follow the slash perfectly.
“Well done Xaveor!'' Ven exclaims resetting himself so he can show me the down strike and continuing the lesson “Compared to normal slashes though, the down strike even though it may be the stronger of the two is a bit inconvenient due to its easily predictable windup and the difficulty of said wind up having to pull off a big side swing and trying not to twist your arm too much as that may cause strain for your forearm and would put you in an uncomfortable and awkward position. The key is making sure that side swing is as close to you as possible and happens as fast as possible but to get the form down we should practice slowly first.” He pulls off a fast one and then a much slower one encouraging me to follow. I try to pull it off but the swing ends up being too wide. I try again and the swing stays the same. Ven comes closer unsummoning his keyblade and offering to guide my swing a little. I allow it and he guides me through the steps tuck back tuck in raise to the side then slash tuck back tuck in raise to the side then slash. After a bit I start to tap to the steps it’s become a sort of rhythm tuck back tuck in raise to the side then slash tuck back tuck in raise to the side then slash. I get faster tuck back tuck in raise to the side then slash the cycle repeats itself over and over in my head tuck back tuck in raise to the side then slash. Ven then asks “are you ready to try it on your own?” He sees my determined expression and then slowly backs away knowing that the pattern has been cemented in my heart without even a word. I take a deep breath and start the cycle a new tuck back tuck in raise to the side then slash the strike was fluid and smooth but still a bit wide my grip is starting to get strained but i still push forward I start the pattern again faster this time tuck back tuck in raise to the side then...
“Sora, Xaveor, Ven, Terra lunch is ready Aqua and Chirithy made sandwiches for everyone.” Calls my mom cutting me off, breaking my concentration and causing the strike to go way off course.
“Aw man I almost had it.” I say disappointed, flipping the keyblade back to normal as my mom comes closer. “It’s lunch already dear? Wow time sure did fly.” Says my dad going over to greet her. “Time flew, you say well you’ve been sparring practically all morning I’d say time has landed a while ago.” responds my mom. Ven shrugs and puts his hands behind his head “Sorry about that Kairi but it couldn’t be helped.” He says as Terra adds “Yeah it definitely couldn’t be helped because as guardians we need to keep our skills sharp and to do that we must spar.” Then responding to both mom says “Well if that’s the case you guys must be hungry after your matches today. Right.” I pipe up “I’m not hungry I want to continue training I wanna practice wielding backhanded so I could help save the worlds from darkness quicker I’ll eat after I master it.” “Wielding backhanded huh sounds daunting my little guardian are you sure you don’t want to have some lunch.” I nod and with confidence say “I’m absolutely sure.” “Really even if a certain someone’s famous jelly tarts were on the menu.” She says causing both Ven and I to perk up “Jelly tarts!?” “Yep jelly tarts and galactic pound cake are both on the menu.” My mom says with a nod. However I’m able to snap out of my amazement to refuse the deal “Nope I’m gonna stay here and train. I'm definitely gonna stay here and spar. I’m not even hungry I could spar for another hour if I wanted to actually I could spar for as long as it takes to master backhand wielding I would starve for that and summoning my ...” I almost finish with my spiel before a big loud grumble pierces through the air. I’m defeated and beet red I finish my sentence “Keyblade.” as laughter soon replaces that grumble and mom says “ You can’t save the world on an empty stomach.” I nod “Yeah I know.” I pout. Seeing this my father comes over and says “Hey, you did outstanding today and we have time to perfect it. Just look skyward and never forget what you’ve learned and you’ll summon your keyblade in no time, okay.” I look towards the sky then to the keyblade reassured now I nod “yeah that’s enough sparring for one day, and dad don’t worry I won’t forget and I will stay the course.” My dad smiles “I knew you would.” He ruffles my hair as we walk inside together.
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