Journey to a New World

Author's Notes: I'm going a little stronger with the updates and such. YAYY~! Although, school is coming up in a week or so, so I've not sure how updating is going to go. Nonetheless, I will, with all my heart, try to continue through the year. :)

Those who followed this story back in 2006 may recognize some of the events in this chapter. They're cleaned up of course. I didn't want all that "awesome" scenes to go to waste. XD

Character Change: Hah, I totally forgot to mention that Sora's last name is Hatsu. While it probably isn't too much of an important change, I thought it needed. YAY~!

Includes: Time with Selphie, static, cameo appearances, Kairi-nonexistence, and darkness.

-00-

Chapter 7: Wash Away the Worry

The strong smell of freshly brewed coffee swept through the kitchen. Cloud closed the cupboard after finding the cup he wanted. He took the coffee pot and poured the liquid into the mug. Sitting down into the chair, Cloud sighed, rubbing his temples.

He then heard the light footsteps of someone coming down the stairs. "Something smells good."

"Hey Mom," Cloud greeted as he waved his hand, startling her.

"Oh! Good Morning Cloud," she smiled, walking over to the coffee pot. "You surprised me there."

She took a floral mug from the cabinet and began to pour herself a drink. "This isn't like you getting up before everyone. Are you alright?"

"Well, it's about Mizu," Cloud admitted, putting down the cup in his hand. "Last night, after everyone went back to bed, I went to go downstairs and check on Mizu."

"Cloud—"

"Now before you scold me for not listening to you, I found her outside on the front lawn mumbling something about being alone in the universe. Then when I tried to talk to her, she seemed lifeless and she then seemed to break from a trance and couldn't remember anything."

Mrs. Sonia closed her eyes, taking everything in. "So, what are you getting at?"

"I think she should go to the doctor's or something," Cloud stated. "There's something not right about her and I don't want her to—"

"I agree with you Cloud," she said suddenly. "These…episodes she's been having cannot be healthy for her. Even so, we aren't her family and I'm not her mother. We can't just bring her in."

"Then; maybe…the police. We could bring her down there and she could be reunited with her family," Cloud said, hoping his mother would understand. "We could let them know that she's been having these strange occurrences. It could be stress from her memory loss."

"I will talk to her about it later today, for now please do not bring it up," Mrs. Sonia said and she sipped on her coffee. "She may be upset with the idea of going to the doctor's. And don't tell Sora—"

"'Don't tell Sora' what?'" Sora asked, staring at his family in confusion. Cloud and Mrs. Sonia took a moment to compose themselves before his mother smiled softly.

"Sora," his mother stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We're out of pancake mix."

Mizu took the hair tie and placed in at the end of her braid. She smiled at herself and stood up. Today is a new day; it'll be a good day.

"Mizu, you ready?" Sora knocked on Mizu's open door. She turned around to her friend and nodded happily.

"Yeah," Mizu said as she walked over to Sora. "Off to Selphie's!"

I know it. Today will be fun.

A short and sweet melody played as Sora rang the doorbell. The tune seemed to match the cheeriness of the outside of the house, being that its main color scheme included a deep red and soft yellow.

"Hey you guys!" Selphie smiled as she opened the door. "How've you been?"

"H-h-hi Selphie," Mizu struggled to say while having Selphie basically squeezing her as tightly as she could. Sora chuckled at the two.

"So, you wanted to hang out at the coolest girl in town?" Selphie chuckled up to the sky as she put her hands on her hips. "Hah, I'm so cool."

"Well, Mizu needs to hang out with other people other than my lame excuse of a brother," Sora started which made Selphie laugh. "And I gotta go to school to get some papers sorted out."

Hearing that Sora wasn't staying to hang out made Mizu a little sad.

"I see," Selphie said as she put her hand in the air. "Well don't you worry; Selphie the Extraordinaire is here to help! It'll be a girl's day today!"

"Thanks Selphie," Sora smiled. Mizu's expression turned from confusion to anger. Am I some small child who was getting dropped off at "day care"? Can I not take care of myself?

As Sora walked out the door, Mizu raced after him. She got in front of him and asked, "H-How come I can't come with you? Do you not want to spend time with me or something?"

Sora was at first surprised by his friend but then smiled softly. "Mizu, I don't want you to go because it'd be boring. I won't be there very long and I'll catch up with you guys later."

He saw that Mizu was not convinced. He continued, "You know school is never fun so why should you have to go through all the non-fun stuff when you can hang out with Selph?"

Boldly, she said, "Anything is fun when I'm with you."

Sora blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Oh; is that so?"

She could tell she'd embarrassed him and knew that he was leaving her here for good intentions. She smiled. "Okay; you're right. School is lame anyway."

She giggled when Sora gave her a dumbfounded look. "I'll see you around then!"

Mizu and Selphie hung out for a while watching T.V. and talking about random topics. From school to boys, Mizu mostly just listened to Selphie's many stories, once in a while adding her own comments. When Selphie realized she was mostly the one talking, she bowed her head in embarrassment.

"Here I am, blabbering away again," she laughed as she rubbed the back of her head. "You must be bored of all my stories."

"No-no!" Mizu giggled. "In fact, I quite enjoy them. You sure have an amazing life here. I really wish I knew stuff about my life."

"The Heart Festival is coming up in a few weeks," Selphie replied as she saw Mizu's eyes look down to the floor. "With all the tourists from around the world coming, I know you'll definitely find someone there who can help you!"

Mizu shook the coming sadness and perked up. "Yeah! You're right Selphie!"

She laughed, pushing her anxiety away. "So, what exactly is the Heart Festival about?"

"Well it's where a bunch of tourists from the main lands and everywhere else come to our islands to experience the water. There's an old legend about how it has healing abilities for the body and soul. Naturally, summer is the time when you get a break from all the stress in school and work so it became a tourist spot. Last year was so amazing. Our island went all out with large parties and all sorts of fireworks and events. There were sales at malls and so many trinket vendors. There was this one cute boy who…"

Mizu smiled as Selphie went into another story about her life. This is nice. Maybe if I find my parents at the festival everything will be better.

"…and then it turned out he just wanted to be friends. He said long distance relationships never work out which I can understand," Selphie smiled at the thought. "Boy, he sure was cute and so nice."

"Selph~!" a girl's voice said as the door opened. Mizu and Selphie looked to see a girl with short black hair and burgundy colored eyes. She was wearing sunglasses on her head and had a strange looking bag that looked like a cross. A sleeveless green jacket was over a black camisole with a floral design. She wore beige shorts with matching colored boots that just fell under her knees with black knee highs. "Oh! Hello there!"

"Heya Yuf~," Selphie smiled and turned to Mizu. "Mizu, this is my older sister Yuffie. Yuffie, this is my friend Mizu."

"Nice to meet 'cha kiddo," Yuffie smiled as she came over to the couch and placed her bag on the table.

"Hello," Mizu smiled back, a little uneasy with meeting new people without Sora. "It's nice to meet you too."

"So, where have you been?" Selphie asked as Yuffie took a seat. "Dad said you were needed at the welcoming center. Was something wrong?"

"Nahh," Yuffie waved her hand as she laughed. "Cid was having problems with figuring out how to get the chocobos to get in their pens. He's such a doof sometimes. Anyway, Ms. Gainsborough asked me to come down this morning to check inventory and help Reno."

"I see," Selphie said as she saw her sister rummage through her bag. "It must be so much fun doing all that stuff."

"I'll see if you can help out next time," Yuffie smiled as she found the item she was looking for. "A-ha~! I knew Leon didn't take it."

"Oh yeah; I have a question Yuffie!" Selphie put her hands together. "Would you mind driving us downtown? Please please!"

"You could walk yanno," Yuffie said, playing with the trinket.

"But it's so loooong and tiring!" Selphie whined. "Please Yuffieee~!"

"Fine, but you owe me," Yuffie sighed as she grabbed her purse. "Give me 20 minutes and then we can go, 'kay?"

"Thank you big sis~!" Selphie exclaimed and hugged Yuffie. Yuffie headed upstairs and Mizu looked over at Selphie.

"Let's go get ready too, Mizu!" Selphie smiled and took her hand upstairs. Mizu felt a little uncomfortable as she walked up the stairs. Her vision became blurry and a static sounding noise rang through her ears. She shook it off and continued to follow her friend into her room.

The room was for the most part neat with the exception of the mountain of clothes in the girl's hamper. The color scheme of the room was a mix of pink, blue and bits of green and purple.

"So, would you mind if I put some makeup on you?" Selphie asked politely. "I really want to be a makeup artist when I get older. I'm really good!"

"I guess that'd be okay," Mizu smiled, seeing her friend's enthusiasm. "So long as I don't turn out looking like a clown or something."

Selphie clapped her hands together and cheered. "I promise. So first we'll grab some foundation, find a good color for your eye shadow, hmmm…"

Mizu blushed, not being familiar with the whole makeup ordeal. "Just do whatever."

Selphie made small talk as she lined Mizu's eyes with liner and looked for a good shadow. Mizu was nearly gasped when Selphie opened a drawer to find it half full of eye shadow colors. Woah, I certainly hope she becomes a makeup artist. Who knew there were THAT many colors for something as small as eye shadow.

Mizu looked around and spotted a bookcase with no books but instead picture frames. She became curious but didn't move since Selphie was busy putting mascara on her lashes.

"Almost done," Selphie spoke as she gently applied lipstick on Mizu's mouth. "THERE!"

Mizu looked at the mirror and gaped. The soft pink mixed with purple on her eyelids blended beautifully into the light blush. Her eyelashes seemed to look fuller and the liner brought the color of her eyes out. The touch of crimson lipstick brought it all together. "Wow! Selphie, you're amazing!"

"Aww thanks Mi~!" Selphie grinned in delight. "Now, lemme quickly do mine and Yuffie should be ready soon too."

Mizu walked over to the bookcase she previously saw and gazed at each of them. There was one of Selphie's family and another of just her and Yuffie. The next couple of pictures were with Tidus, Wakka, Sora, Riku, Kairi and on the rare occasion Roxas. One of the pictures caught Mizu's attention.

"Selphie, is this—!" Mizu pointed to the two in the picture as she showed it to Selphie. She gaped as she passed the photo.

"Yes indeed," Selphie laughed, taking the picture frame from Mizu. "This is Sora and Riku as kids."

The said boys were standing side by side outside by a garden. While Sora looked completely clueless, Riku had his mouth open as if he were about to tell the photographer not to take the picture. Sora had on a bright pink dress with a large matching pink bow atop his head. The dress had puffy sparkly shoulders, a solid pink middle and a matching poofy, glittering bottom. Riku, on the other hand, was wearing a flowery yellow sundress with and heart in the middle and brown leggings. His bangs were pinned back with 4 small yellow barrettes in his hair.

"I had them dress up because they said they were prettier than me," Selphie pouted, faintly remembering Riku's taunting. "They were right."

Mizu giggled as she put the frame back and then saw another picture similar to Sora' and Riku's. Only it looked like a recent picture. "Oh my gosh—ROXAS!"

The two continued to dive into memories when Yuffie knocked on the door.

"Thanks for the ride downtown!" Selphie smiled at her sister as she got out of the car. "Don't forget to pick us up at around 5! I'll give you a call if we're running late."

"Okie dokie!" her sister smiled and gave a peace sign with her fingers before driving away.

"Let's go!" Selphie smiled, taking Mizu's arm in hers. Mizu glanced at her surroundings and grinned. Most of the buildings had large windows for everyone to see the items they were selling and made of white concrete. There were murals drawn on the walls of dolphins, whales, and other aquatic animals.

As they neared the beach, Mizu suddenly remembered something. "I don't have a bathing suit."

Selphie stopped walking and itched her head. "Well, that's not going to work."

"I've got an idea~!" Selphie bounced and turned to her friend. "Let's go get you a swimsuit."

"Ehhh?"

After much struggling and pleading, Selphie finally got Mizu to walk into one of the stores called "Sun and Sand."

"Okay," Selphie walked over to the rack of bathing suit tops and bottoms. "What do you see here?"

Mizu tentatively looked through, getting an uneasy feeling as she saw how revealing they all were. She then spotted a red bikini with orange and yellow beads. The bottoms were like shorts and Mizu picked it out. "I like this one."

Selphie looked at it and smiled back. "That looks so cute. Try it on!"

Mizu came out of the changing room, grinning to Selphie. She opened her purse, making Mizu's stomach drop. "Selphie, you don't—"

"Don't," Selphie held her hand up. "I don't mind paying."

Everyone is so nice here. This town is too good to be true.

Mizu and Selphie ran through the water with other people she didn't really know. She vaguely remembered them having names along the lines of Demyx, George (but he called himself Goofy), Donald, Olette, Pence, and Marluxia. They played Frisbee for a while until a couple of them were asked by other people to join their volleyball game. Mizu went over to their towels to grab a drink.

"C'mon Mizu!" Selphie laughed as she ran over to the court. "Come on and join!"

"I'll be just a minute," Mizu smiled when she felt her heart beat in her ears. She gasped quickly, bringing a hand to her neck. She couldn't hear anything but static and the scene in front of her began to tear away. She then looked to the side of her and saw a dark form beside her and she panicked.

"Mizu?" Selphie placed a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"

Mizu's vision returned and she weakly smiled. "Oh yeah. I'm okay. I spaced out!"

"Oh," Selphie nodded, still a little worried for her friend. "Well, I wanted to know if you wanted to go out on Demyx's boat."

"What happened to volleyball?" Mizu questioned, looking over at the people.

"We made teams so we're not up yet," Selphie said. "So, Demyx said we could kill time by going tubing. It's so cool and a lot of fun!"

"I—"

"Mizu!" a voice called from behind. They looked over to see Sora along with Roxas, who seemed to be in a better mood. Selphie stood up and put her hands on her hips but smiled nonetheless.

"Hey!" Mizu called out to them and stood up as well. She then felt a little bad for ditching Selphie but saw Selphie waved her hand as she went over to the dock.

Mizu ran over to Sora and Roxas but her legs gave out and the whole world went bright orange and blurry. She heard Sora yell out and raced to where she had fallen.

"Mizu, are you okay?" Sora gasped, not knowing whether to touch her.

Go away. Whatever this static is; stop it.

"Owww," Mizu muffled as she spit sand out of her mouth. "I'm such a klutz."

Sora sighed and Roxas laughed at Mizu's sandy face. "Hey, you look good."

She stuck her tongue out and brushed the sand off the rest of her. "So, did your school stuff go well?"

"Yep," Sora patted the bag slung over his shoulder. "I found Roxas along the way too."

"Oh no!" Mizu put her hands to her face. "All that hard work Selphie did on my makeup."

Sora laughed at Mizu's expression. Seeing this made Mizu twitch an eyebrow. "You know Sora…I did happen to see that adorable picture of you and Riku when you two were younger."

Sora immediately whipped his head to her and blushed. "W-Wha?"

"You two were so cute," Mizu smirked. "As girls."

Sora's face was beet red as he mumbled something about getting back at Selphie. It was Roxas's turn to burst out in laughter and Mizu's eye sparkled.

"Ohh Roxas, I haven't forgotten about you," she grinned evilly. "Why exactly were you dressed up like that? Was it really for a play—or do you just enjoy it?"

Roxas shut up and turned the same shade of red as Sora. "Y-You!"

"I really did like the long hair and makeup."

"SELPHIE!" both Sora and Roxas yelled at the same time. They ran over to the edge of the water, calling for Demyx to dock immediately. Mizu could practically see the steam coming from her friends.

"Hah~!"

Sora, Roxas and Mizu thanked Yuffie as she drove away. They walked into Sora's house and began to take off their shoes when, Roxas cleared his throat. "So, thanks for letting me stay here for the next couple of days."

Sora was a bit taken back by Roxas's statement. He smiled, "It's no problem."

"I really appreciate it," Roxas said quietly as they walked into the kitchen. Sora felt his heart almost flutter in happiness. "You're family, Roxas. You're welcome over any time you want."

As they ascended up the steps, Sora remembered Mizu was using the guest room. He stopped at the top of the staircase and laughed nervously, "Well, I guess it'll really be like old times."

Roxas sighed but smiled anyway. "That's fine."

Sora and Mizu looked at each other as Roxas went down the hall to Sora's room. They smiled at each other. The family was getting together again.

"You get the floor Sora," Roxas called from inside the room. "I am your guest."

"Hey! That's not fair!" Sora whined as he left Mizu. "It's my room!"

Mizu laughed at the two, seeing a pillow fly out of Sora's (and Roxas's) room.

"Hah! You missed—Oof!"

"We're home!" Mrs. Sonia called out in a sing-song voice. Mizu looked down the staircase to see Cloud with a brown haired man. She was met with grayish-blue eyes and a line scar running from the left of his forehead to his right cheek. He had a black jacket with faux fur lining the collar over a white shirt. Resting on his chest was a necklace with an emblem that resembled a lion. He had on black leather pants with a couple of belts wrapped around his waist.

"Heya Mimi~!" Cloud waved as they walked up the stairs. Mizu slowly waved back and backed up to let them through. She stared at Cloud's friend, a little intimidated by his hard stare.

"Oh! This is Leon," Cloud pointed to his friend with a thumb. "Oh my; Leon, that's a rather scary face you're giv—"

Leon whacked the back of Cloud's head, grunting, "Shut it Cloud."

Mizu watched in curiosity as Cloud rubbed the sensitive area. Leon grumbled something about Cloud being immature when Sora and Roxas came out of their room.

"Well, whatdya know," Cloud said as his cousin and brother met them. "We've got the whole family here."

"Hey Leon," Sora smiled. "Long time, no see. I hope Cloud's not too much of an annoyance since you're his only friend."

"HEY!" Cloud wrapped his arm around Sora's neck and gave him a noogie. "Look who's talking, squirt!"

"Aghh~!"

"Mizu, dear," Mrs. Sonia said from the kitchen. "Could you come down for a minute?"

Mizu slipped past all the boys and found Mrs. Sonia and Mr. Hatsu sitting at the table. She was a little worried, seeing their solemn facial expressions. Taking a seat, Mizu gulped and put her hands in her lap.

"You're not in trouble," Mrs. Sonia began. "We're just—"

"My wife has brought it to my attention that you've been having these—" Mr. Hatsu searched for the right words. "…strange occurrences since you've been with us."

Mizu looked down at the table, upset with where this was going.

"Don't be upset, sweetheart," Mrs. Sonia tried to reach out to her. "We're just concerned about your health. We want to make sure you're okay. Please understand."

"I do, Mrs. Sonia," Mizu said in a monotone voice. I'm fine now! Please don't think I'm some crazy person!

"We'd like to bring you to a doctor's tomorrow morning," Mr. Hatsu said softly. "Please do not worry though. We only want to keep you safe."

Okay…doctor's isn't bad. There's nothing wrong with me. I'm fine.

"O-okay," Mizu bowed her head as she got up. "I think I'll go to bed now."

"Mi—" Mrs. Sonia started but felt her husband's hand on her shoulder. Mizu climbed the steps and brushed past someone. She whispered an apology and went into her room.

Roxas watched as Mizu closed her door with a puzzled expression. She looked as if she was about to cry. At first he took a step towards the door but decided against knocking on it.

"Yo Roxas, did you die or something?" Cloud's voice asked from one of the bedrooms. "You getting the popcorn?"

"I'm going," Roxas yelled back, turning away from the girl's door.

Mizu awoke to the sound of people in hushed conversation and the smell of breakfast. As she got up, the room seemed to be somewhat empty. Ignoring it, she walked downstairs to find Cloud, Leon, Sora, Roxas and Sora's parents at the table happily in conversation. Smiling brightly, Mizu chirped good morning. However, they didn't seem to hear her and continued to talk to one another. A little perplexed, Mizu tried again.

This time, however, no voice came from her. Instead a haunting snigger replied.

"You don't belong here, do you?" a voice cackled through the air. Mizu watched as the scene moved away. As a black hand made its way onto her shoulder, she sprinted towards the family. As she attempted to run, she felt as though she were slowing down. It was as if there was no gravity.

"This isn't your place," the mysterious voice continued, almost harshly. Mizu shook her head, not wanting to believe it. She did belong here. With her friends.

"You should go." That statement stopped her completely and she fell through the darkness.

"All done, Ms. Hatsu," the nurse smiled, patting the girl on the head. "Let me just get the doctor."

Mizu stared at the star patterned band-aid on her finger, bending it up and down. She wanted to say that Hatsu wasn't her last name but shrugged and went along with it. The door opened to reveal a odd looking man with long blond locks and comically large glasses. His abnormally lengthy white jacket fell to his knees and a stethoscope was wrapped around his neck. His nametag read "Dr. V. Noebudy".

"Hello there, my name is Dr. Noebudy but you can call me Vexen," the doctor gave a crooked smile. "Mrs. Hatsu told me of your situation about your recent memory lose. Now if you could sit on up here, we'll check you out."

After the routine check-up, he started to type into the computer about her information.

"Alrightie Ms. Hatsu," Vexen pressed a button on the keyboard and turned over to her. "Blood work came back fine. Your reflexes are good. You're in tip top shape."

Mizu nodded, slightly swinging her feet. There's nothing wrong with me. That's good, isn't it?

"Do you have any questions?" Dr. Vexen asked, seeing the girl's confused expression.

"Well, it's just," Mizu looked up at the doctor. "Lately, I've been passing out from time to time. I came here to see if I was sick or had a defiency of something that was causing this. Or maybe why I have lost my memory."

"It could be because of stress," Vexen said as he sat down in a nearby chair. "Since you have lost your memory, the pressure to familiarize yourself with so many new things may be causing your fainting. For now, take breaks when you do anything that may exert yourself. If you have any more problems, please feel free to come by again."

"Thank you Dr. Vexen," Mizu smiled as she hopped off the seat.

"Have a good day," he said as she walked out to reunite with Mrs. Sonia.

-00-

Author's Notes:

Lol; while I was going through this story; I realized that it's only been about 4 days Mizu's been on the islands. XD Man I feel like she's been there about a month with what is going on. Sooo, there was a lot added to the original storyline which is fine to me because then I can write a lot more.

Relationships don't progress THAT fast as well. Gotta get Sora and Kairi to break up soon so Mizu and he can have a relationship other friendship cuz that was in my original. Though, if it doesn't fit then that's okay. Yay! Updating this story is both hard and fun!

Next time in JTANW: Kairi's back, Riku is too, a pleasant sunset, Blitzball (a.k.a. whack-a-Tidus), and a new addition to the Hatsu Household.

Until next time, HIKARI, out!