Hey, everybody! For those of you who don't know me (probably everyone in this section), I'm GengaJupite, and this is my first KH fic. I'm still pretty new to writing, so I won't be upset if you don't like my style or grammar mistakes or any other reasons I might rub you the wrong way. My first fic (a Golden Sun story) got pretty rave reviews, so I'm hoping that I'm good enough to make a name for myself in the Kingdom Hearts fandom as well.

Anyway, I usually do random news and review responses at the top with author notes at the bottom, but if I do start getting large numbers of reviewers (not to sound cocky, I just know that the KH fanbase has a lot of people, so it's a possibility) I'll move the RRs to the bottom so that people don't have to scroll too far to read the beginning of the chapter. Also, the chapter names are all gonna be my favourite quote or line from the chapter. I'm working on writing humour, so I apologize if our senses of humour clash.

Well, I don't really have much else to say about this other than thanks for checking it out!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters, names, and terms affiliated with it. All rights go to its respective owners.

All's Fair in Love and War

Y'know, 'cause it's Terra.

"You ready, Roxas?"

"I guess. I don't really know how to feel about all of this."

"Don't sweat it, you know Sora and Aqua and everybody, so don't worry about it! You'll be fine."

I shrugged to my twin brother, Ven, as the two of us headed out the front door of our house. Today was the first day back to school; well, I can't really say back since I'm not going back to my school. Let's rephrase that, it was the first day of grade eleven at a new public school that my brother had been attending while I, Roxas, was away at the fancy private school, Twilight Academy. For whatever reason, our mom decided to pull me out to attend regular old Destiny High with my brother and cousin, Sora, so here I am, the awkward new kid.

It's not that I didn't like the idea of coming to a new school with new people… okay, maybe that was exactly it, but it was also because I didn't want to leave my friends. Hayner, Pence, Olette, and I have been inseparable ever since we started school together in grade eight, so now I'm more or less on my own. Ven said he'd let me hang out with his group while I was still the new kid, but after a couple weeks of settling in I would be on my own. Gee thanks, bro. I think he was kidding, but you can never really tell with Ven.

I'm not particularly bad at making new friends, but the thought of being in a new environment with a whole bunch of strangers makes me anxious. Being the new kid, I was bound to get all the weird looks and hear all of the whispers of "who's that?" and "is that a new kid?" and my personal favourite "hey, Ven… what do you mean you aren't Ven?" You'd think that people would be able to understand when you told them that Ven is your twin brother, but the people around here seem so… simpleminded.

"Here we are!" Ven said enthusiastically as the school came into view.

The walk there was only about ten minutes, so I was already familiar with the building that was so near to my house. Honestly I've never been inside, since I only ever passed by it when I had to come home for the summer, but now this was to be my school, and I'd have to get used to it for the next two years. It was pretty much like any other normal school you see these days: white, rectangular, a sign that read Destiny Islands Secondary School, windows, doors, y'know, the works. A bunch of people were hanging around the courtyard, catching up with friends they hadn't seen all summer and whatnot. It was kinda sad to realize that I probably won't be seeing my own friends for quite some time.

"Hey, don't look so down, Roxas. Yeah, you're probably feeling weird, but you'll be running with the cool kids for a while," said Ven, patting me on the back.

"Really? Because I thought I was supposed to be chilling with you and your friends for the first few weeks," I quipped back at my brother, as I smiled mischievously. If there was anything I was good at, it was making quick comebacks.

"Oh hardy har har, funny guy, but you should be thanking me for not abandoning you right off the bat. I've got a rep to protect, and I don't need to be seen as a nepotist." Some brother he was. If we weren't twins, I probably wouldn't let people know we were brothers. Ven could be such a dick sometimes.

"Oh, Ventuuuuus," called a gentle voice. We both looked towards the sound to see Aqua waving over to us from a distance.

Ven was quick to ditch me for his… girlfriend? No, she was more of a girl friend, as in two separate words. But didn't they kiss and stuff? Then again, Ven was always grumbling about some guy named Terra. I thought Terra was his best friend, though I'd never actually met the guy. Huh, public school problems. We never had to deal with this kind of stuff at Twilight Academy. Everyone there was so… I don't want to say simple, so I'll say we were easy to understand. There wasn't really much drama, and that was just the way I liked things. Other than the occasional troublemaking caused by Seifer and his cronies, Twilight Academy was pretty quiet. Here… well, if my brother can't figure stuff out with his own group then things were gonna be hell.

"Hey, Roxas! How's it going?" said Aqua when I caught up to them. Aqua comes over to our house in the summer sometimes, so I knew her already.

"Fine, I guess." What was I supposed to say; I'm ecstatic to have left my old life for this brand new one that I didn't want?

"Aw, don't worry, you'll fit in great with us!" she said happily. I couldn't help but smile back to her. She just seemed so giddy for some reason.

"Where's everyone else?" asked Ven, stealing her attention. He wasn't even her boyfriend… I think, but he was already getting jealous. Honestly, dude, I've met her, I'm not gonna steal her from you. It's not like she's yours or anything anyway…

"Oh, Terra's in the foyer with Wakka. I saw Tidus and Selphie walking around looking for the Yuna and the others. I think Sora, Kairi, and Riku are meeting up with an old friend before they get here. Some guy named Mickey. Sounds familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it."

Ven burst out laughing at the mention of Mickey's name, causing Aqua and I to exchange odd glances before staring at my brother. What a weirdo…

"Oh man, how can you forget Mickey?! He's a freaking m-m-muh… m-muhahahaha."

Wow, great description, buddy; you should think about a career in descriptive journalism… Gah, sometimes Ven can be such a dumbass. Wait, did I say that already? Nevermind, I said dick before. Well he can kinda take on either role. I dread the thought of if our lives had been switched and I'd turned into the hysteric idiot standing in front of me.

"Ven, what's so funny?" Aqua asked, still just as confused as I was.

"Ehehe, nothing, nothing. You'll…. Heehee… you'll see when he gets here with them."

"Roxas!" shouted someone from behind me. Wait, someone knew it was me, not Ven; that could only be…

"Sora!" I shouted back, turning around only to get tackled to the ground by a spiky-headed blur.

"How've you been, man?!" Whoa, quell the enthusiasm, Sora. Then again, he'd always been kind of like this. I think there've only been one or two occasions where Sora hasn't tackled me upon arrival.

"Oof, I think I'd be feeling better if you weren't crushing me," I joked. The happy kid chuckled and apologized as he climbed off, holding out his hand to help me up. See, why couldn't Sora be my brother and not Ven? He was certainly more brotherly, even if he was supposed to be… cousinly?

"Ven, you didn't tell us Roxas was gonna be here today!" Sora laughed to my brother.

"Uh, I kinda assumed 'cause, y'know, he's transferred and it's the first day and all…" I had to agree with him on that one. Maybe we did have something more in common than our looks; I'm still the better-looking one though. Sora never really was the brightest kid growing up, but he did have a pretty vivid imagination, so he had been a better play pal than Ven.

"Oh, hehe, right…" he said, putting on his signature grin while striking his signature pose: hands behind his head as if he were leaning against something. How he always made it look like he was actually putting his weight on his hands, I would never know.

"Hey, thanks for waiting, Sora," a deeper, sarcastic voice said as a tall silver-haired boy and a scarlet-haired girl approached. I instantly recognized them as Sora's childhood friends, Riku and Kairi. "Long time no see, eh Roxas?"

I nodded back to him. I didn't really know Riku or Kairi that well, so I didn't have anything to say. It's not that we don't get along, just that I don't really know them since they're my cousin's best friends, not my brother's. I didn't notice at first, but it looked like there was some kind of midget trailing behind them as well. He looked like he had some big circles on his head or something, and, wait, was that a tail?! What the hell was I looking at?

"Hiya, Ven, Aqua! You guys miss me?" the thing squeaked out in a ridiculously cartoony voice. Geez, this thing even looked like a cartoon! Aqua's face lit up, and Ven just started laughing again. Apparently she recognized the thing.

"Mickey! What are you doing here? Don't you have important stuff to do back home?" Wait, this thing was the Mickey they were talking about?! Ven took one look at my face and started tearing up from laughter.

"Well, not today! I thought I'd drop in for a visit before heading back! Huh, who's this?" it asked, looking at me.

Through his laughs, Ven managed to form a complete sentence, "This is my brother, Roxas. He's a transfer."

"Well, it's nice to meet ya, Roxas. The name's Mickey Mouse!" it said cheerily, holding out its oversized, gloved hand. So… it, I mean he, was a mouse? I guess that made sense now that I looked at him more carefully. I shook his hand, noting that he only seemed to have four fingers. Man, this day was just too weird already.

Suddenly, a loud bell sounded, catching everyone's attention. Mickey said a quick goodbye and everyone in the courtyard began filing into the building's large foyer. Okay, I had to admit, the school looked a lot nicer on the inside than on the outside. It also seemed bigger, which didn't really make any sense, but that's beside the point.

"Come on Roxas, we've gotta go find our names section to pick up our schedules!" said Sora, tugging me towards the left side of the foyer. Apparently everyone's schedules were in folders designated by last name.

"A to D, A to D, A to D," Sora muttered to himself. More like ADD, but I digress. Aqua and Ven weren't far behind us as we approached the table.

"Name?" said the girl behind a long desk with four folders. Whoa, how'd we get to the front of the line so quickly? More importantly, how many damn kids went to this school?

"Sora Destati!" he said overenthusiastically. The bored-looking girl sighed and ruffled through the D folder. Eventually she found his name and handed him a few pieces of paper. Sora stood off to the side and waited for us to get ours, taking on his signature pose and expression again.

"Name?"

"Roxas Destati."

"Ugh, you could've said something when I was going through it the first time," she muttered. Well, miss sourpuss, why'd you sign up for this if you were gonna be so bitter?

"Oh, uh, sorry. My brother's Ventus Destati, so you could grab that one too."

I received a death glare before she continued ruffling through the papers. Sometimes I wondered why people did things if they were just going to complain the whole time. I mean if it's voluntary, don't bother, right? She shoved Ven's and my papers into my hands, and I wasted no time in handing Ven his before quickly going over to Sora.

"Let's see what you've got this semester!" said Sora, snatching the schedule out of my hands. "Aw, man, we've only got math together. Have fun being my alarm clock."

All I could do was chuckle. Leave it to Sora to be blunt about his learning habits. Then again, math came easy to me, so I usually just slept through the lessons and taught myself the night before a test. Yeah, I'm awesome like that. It gives me as much time as I want to do fun stuff. Can't really say the same about Sora; again, he's not the brightest individual.

"Alright, Roxas, let's see what you've got!" said Ven, who waited for Aqua to get her schedule before coming over towards us. After scanning my page for a second, he smiled. "Nice, we've got PE in first period and music in third. You'll be in Aqua's history class in fourth period, and I guess we're all in PE together!"

"Don't forget about me," said a gruff voice from behind Ven and Aqua. That was when the burliest tank of a seventeen-year-old walked up and put his arms around their shoulders. Seriously, if you could see this guy, he was like a walking muscle. I'm not checking him out, but seriously what do you weigh, like three hundred pounds? If I was the gun show, then this guy was the cannon artillery.

"Terra!" Aqua cried happily. Oh, now I understand Ven's competition. Good luck pal, I'm not backing you up if you have to fight for her. He could probably pin us both with his arm hairs, and hair doesn't even have any muscle. Yeah that's how buff this guy was.

"You guys did say first period PE, right? I'm gonna squash you, little Ven," he said, ruffling my brother's hair.

Ven quickly swatted his hand away, but laughed at his best friend, "Keep dreaming, buddy. You may be a little stronger than me," …uh, a little stronger? Do you even see the Great Wall of China standing in front of you? "but I've yet to lose any running sports to you!"

"Pfft, who cares about running away when you can do this?" he said before flexing his biceps towards us. A few girls who were looking over squealed and swooned at the sight of Terra's rippling muscles.

"Uh, hey, I'm Roxas." Wow, good time to randomly interrupt your brother and his friends.

"Oh, hey there, man. Ven's told me a lot about you. Good thing you don't seem at all like this little bugger. I can barely handle one."

I laughed at the insult. Seems like I'd get along pretty well with Ven's friends if we were all in mutual agreement of his immaturity. As the crowds in the foyer started to die down, the second bell went off, indicating the start of first period.

"I'll see you later, Sora," I said, waving to my cousin as the four of us headed off towards the gym.

After quickly getting changed, I headed into the gymnasium (which was huge compared to my old one, I might add), and took a seat on the floor by Ven. The teachers had us grouped by grade, so Terra and Aqua were off with the rest of the grade twelves while we were sitting with a bunch of people I didn't know.

"Hey, Ven!" called a blond boy, who ran over and took a seat with us. "Oh, and, uh… Ven number two…" Wow, I could see why he and Ven were friends already.

"Hey, Tidus! It's cool that so many of us are in this class! Anyone else we know? By the way, my brother's name is Roxas. He wishes he could be Ven number two." Ugh, please.

"Oh, sorry about that, Roxas. Anyway, yeah, Wakka's getting changed still, and Selphie's over there with Yuna and Rikku. Pfft, grade tens, right?"

Ven shoved Tidus, laughing all the while, "Yeah, except that you've had the hots for Yuna ever since you met her!"

"Dude, shut the hell up, she'll hear you!"

Being left out of their conversation, I kind of just smiled and watched their banter. Another guy with some crazy hairdo and a foreign accent showed up and started talking to them too, so I was sort of just left out of their conversation even more than before. I didn't really mind since they were mostly just picking on each other.

"Aw shit that doesn't look good…" said Ven, looking somewhere behind me.

"Well, when there's a class with this many people we know, someone bad was bound to show up eventually," added Tidus.

"Just don' talk to them, ya?" added the guy who I think was named Wakka.

I turned around to see two grade twelves entering the gym. Other than having some rather stern and intimidating expressions, they just looked like regular guys to me. If anything the one with pink hair looked kind of like a girl… The other one, well, his hair was doing all kinds of crazy jagged motions, but his yellow eyes were certainly menacing. I watched as they passed by Terra and Aqua, the two pairs exchanging glares before the two 'bad guys' walked to the end of the line.

"Who're those guys?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

"The girly one is Marluxia and the one with glowing eyes is Xemnas," Tidus muttered.

"And you guys have beef with them or something?"

"I guess you could say that," said Ven. "There's been a few… incidents that haven't ended well. I don't wanna go into details, but basically they're a bunch of dark, goth-ish douchebags who think they're better than everyone else. They have some club called Organization XIII or something. In fact, here comes another one now."

A much more emo-looking kid with greyish hair entered the gym and started walking towards where we were sitting. His right eye was covered by hair, so you could only see his left eye. He was giving us a look of disgust as he took a seat near the end of the line.

"So they aren't all in the same grade?" I asked.

"Most of them are grade twelves, but there's a few in our grade," said Tidus. "That one there is Zexion. He's kinda quiet, but everyone knows that he hates us just as much as the others. I think the other one is new from last year, but she's surprisingly not bad. I had a class with her and she talked to me and everything. Kinda reminds me of Kairi in a weird sort of way. I don't really know how she ended up in their crew, but that makes her… dangerous."

"Dangerous? Uh, okay, I won't bother asking about it. What's her name?"

Ven and Tidus both looked at each other before looking back at me and shrugging. Apparently Wakka didn't know either. Wow, guys, warn me about a potentially dangerous girl and forget her name so I don't know to stay away from her, that's cool.

"Yeah, I can't remember her name exactly," my brother continued for Tidus, "but she's kinda short and has black hair. Oh, there's also another girl, but I don't really know if she's in their group or not. She's always running around doing stuff for them, but I don't think I've ever actually seen her sitting with them at lunch or anything. Hey, Tidus, what's that blonde's name again?"

"Beats me."

Seriously? You guys are absolutely awful with names. Well, at least I know there's a short, black-haired girl, and a blonde girl that I have to look out for. That only narrows it down to about two thirds of the female population at this school with ten billion people at it. No problem, guys, thanks for the heads up.

The sound of a whistle blowing caught everyone's attention. All the heads in the gym turned towards the woman at the front of the room. Holy crap, was that the teacher?! But she's so… so… hot! Damn my teenage hormones! No, I don't mean I'm getting a boner, but why did the one teacher that I'd get to see in workout clothes have to be so attractive?

"Good morning, everybody, I'm Ms. Lockhart!" A few wolf whistles sounded, causing a few chuckles to go around. She didn't seem to mind; was she a cougar or something?

Smiling she gestured to tough-looking blond guy standing beside her. "And this here is Mr. Strife! We're going to be your PE teachers this semester!" A few female 'ow-ow's sounded after she gestured to Mr. Strife, but his face remained stern. Geez I hoped I got to work with Ms. Lockhart more… I didn't mean it like that…

"Since today's the first day, we're going to do something fun that everyone seems to enjoy: practice-weapon combat!" Wait, what?! The hell kind of a school teaches weapon combat?! Am I joining the military or something?!

Unfortunately for me, everyone else seemed to be cheering loudly, including some of the smaller girls. So much for a self-esteem booster… It's not like I'm frail or anything, but, once again, what the hell kind of school teaches weapon combat? I watched as Mr. Strife started turning a crank, lifting a little garage door at the side of the room. From what I could see, the room was filled with all kinds of different hard-rubber weapons.

"Okay, file in and get your weapons. No shoving, I wouldn't want someone to get hurt… yet." Our teacher is pretty sadistic… It's a good thing she's hot or I would be having second thoughts about this class.

When I entered the spacious storage room I got a good look at all the weapons on the wall. After scanning for a little while, I was pretty much speechless. I mean okay; nunchuks, reasonable; sword, basic; bowstaff, gives you options; most of them seemed pretty understandable, but who the hell, and I truly mean this, makes a freaking rubber scythe?! Yeah, I understand it can't actually kill someone, but still, that's a little maniacal for high school gym equipment, don't you think?

"I'll take that," said a cool voice from behind me, reaching over my head to grab the scythe that I just ranted on about. I looked behind me to see the pink-haired guy's stern expression examining the weapon before he left the area. Honestly, I was really freaked out. I had to make a mental note to never call him girly again.

"Roxas, come here!" shouted Ven from the other side of the room. I quickly made my way over to him, careful not to trip on any of the weapons people had thrown on the ground.

"Use one of these, it's called a keyblade. It's pretty easy to handle, but it packs a punch!" I guess my brother had done this before to know how to analyze the weapon so thoroughly. Reaching into a bin full of the things, I pulled one out, but it had another one stuck to its handle.

"Once you have your weapon, get back into the gym so other people have a turn," said Mr. Strife, basically shoving us out of there. Great, I accidentally grabbed two keyblades by mistake.

"Don't worry, Roxas, they know you're new. They'll probably encourage you to use two since you're gonna suck!"

I shoved my brother, despite knowing he was probably right. "Hey, shut up, I know how to hold my own!"

"Haha, we'll see."

Once everyone had a weapon, Ms. Lockhart explained the rules. It seemed pretty straightforward; beat the living hell out of your opponent until they yield. There was some more stuff that went along with it, but that's pretty much how it sounded.

"Okay, if everyone's ready, I'll get both screens going. It's going to be tournament-style and all the matches will be done within your grade! I'll be judging the grade tens and elevens while Mr. Strife judges the grade twelves."

Some giant screens by the far wall lit up. Each screen was divided into two halves to show the combatants who would face off against each other. The gym went dark before it suddenly lit up with all these neon lights that divided it with a thick line going down the middle. A large rectangle formed on the floor on each side, showing the boundaries for the fight. In all honesty, it looked like something right out of Tron: Legacy.

"Now booting Battle Grid System. Floor One: Hand-to-Hand Combat Singles Selected," said an automated female voice from the speakers above. Awe-freaking-some. I didn't even realize technology like this existed! From the other side, we could hear the same voice repeat what we just heard, except that they were doing doubles. Ms. Lockhart pushed a button and a list of names started flashing along both halves of the screen. Smirking deviously, she hit another button and the names on the left side started to slow down first."

"Combatant One: Ventus Destati. Grade: Eleven. Age: Sixteen. Weapon: Keyblade." A picture of Ven showed up on the screen, as well as his grade, age, and weapon of choice, so basically the things it just announced. Man, if my old school had technology like this, I don't think I would have ever left. I heard the click as Ms. Lockhart pushed the button again, slowing the names on the right.

"Combatant Two: Roxas Destati." Shit. "Grade: Eleven. Age: Sixteen. Weapon: Dual Keyblades." Some 'ooh's sounded as the two of us stood to take our place on the battle grid. From the other side we could hear the grade twelve matchups receive similar reactions. I guess everyone gets an 'ooh'.

"Don't worry, bro, I'll go easy on you. I'll make it look like you were doing well."

Now, I had no experience with fighting, but my competitive side must have gotten the best of me. "Hah, speak for yourself."

The speaker counted down "3…2…1…Fight!" and the match began. Before I could even think of what to do, Ven came flying at me. My first reaction was to block, so that's exactly what I did. His weapon struck the X-shape I'd formed in front of me, but I still stumbled back a few steps. I took a second to regain my footing, and held out both keyblades to my side. The first thing I noticed when I had the chance to look was that Ven's keyblade was considerably smaller than either of mine, and he was holding it backwards. Huh, was I holding it the wrong way? This seemed more comfortable to me… I didn't have another chance to think about it though, because Ven lunged at me again, spinning his keyblade and striking me on the side. I yelped in pain and tried to distance myself from him.

"Point, Ventus. Two minutes remaining."

Alright, well if it was going to announce our points, I was gonna freaking destroy my brother. He was right about these weapons, they seemed to fit properly in my hands, and didn't seem tricky to use at all.

"Had enough?" he laughed.

"Just warming up," I said before quickly lunging at him. Luckily for me he wasn't expecting such a sudden move, and I easily struck him on the side.

"Point, Roxas. One minute, forty-five seconds remaining."

"Alright, Roxas, you wanna dance, let's dance."

The fight continued surprisingly even-matched. He would get a point, then I would get a point and that continued until the final forty-five seconds of the match. At some point I actually got a flurry of hits on him, and the machine stuttered in an attempt to catch all of them.

"P-P-Point Ro-Point Roxas. Score: Sixteen to Twelve. Thirty seconds remaining."

"You… you sure you don't… wanna give up?" panted Ven. Surprisingly, I wasn't feeling tired at all. Perhaps fighting was my forte. Not that I'd ever gotten in any fights; I'm a good kid…

"Get real! Look which one of us is winning!"

"Heh, you sound just like Sora. That's it wiseguy, you're going down!"

Ven did some crazy flip thing (I honestly had no idea he was so athletic) and flew down at me from above. While it was a really cool, flashy move and all, that's about all it had, because I leisurely sidestepped and mockingly tapped him on the back when he was recovering from the slight recoil of his badass-looking attack.

"Point Roxas. Twelve seconds remaining."

"You gonna yield, or should I embarrass you right here?" I taunted holding one keyblade over his head while I used the other to pin his down.

"I'll never surrender!"

"Your loss, then," I shrugged before placing my foot on his keyblade and battering down on his back with weak blows so not to actually hurt him. The system was going so crazy that Mr. Strife, who hadn't been paying attention to our side at all, up until that moment, thought that it was glitching out. That is, until he saw me racking up the points from a humiliated Ven.

"P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P-…-P-P-P-P-P-P-Point Roxas. Score: Sixty-Eight to Twelve. Five seconds remaining."

Now that wouldn't do, a score like that wasn't right. There was something missing. I needed to fix it in my very limited time. It needed to be a slight bit more humiliating for Ven, but what to do. Ah, nevermind, I've got it. It'll only take one second, so, meh, why not? Poke.

"Time! Score: Sixty-Nine to Twelve. Winner: Roxas Destati."

A roar of laughter went around as the score was announced. Ah, it felt good to be the winner. I helped Ven to his feet, where he glanced around at the class in embarrassment. It was funny to see yourself blush, figuratively speaking that is, since it was Ven blushing, not me. Boom, baby, I'm the winner here. Suck it, Ven!

"You know I let you win, right?" he said lamely. A few boos from the crowd sounded as we took our seats. I laughed; he was usually the one getting the glory, so it felt good to change things up. Who would've thought that I might get to lay a beatdown on my brother and get graded on it? Now that was badass. Maybe this school wasn't gonna be so bad.

"Ventus Destati eliminated. Roxas Destati moves to branch two." Why, thank you, computer, for rubbing salt in my brother's wound. Ven grumbled from beside me.

The rest of the class was spent watching and participating in intense, and not-so intense, fights. Surprisingly, I hadn't lost a match yet, and found myself in the final round. A wave of cheers went up for me as I sat back down after my semi-final match.

"Neku Sakuraba eliminated. Roxas Destati moves to the final match." I had to admit, that guy was using some pretty weird attacks. He wore his headphones the whole time as if he didn't give a crap, but he was no pushover. He had some little strap things on his hands that let him make objects appear that he would telekinetically toss at me or use to defend himself. Man, if that weren't just something for the battle grid, I would totally use those in real life. You know, for doing chores… not fighting… 'cause I'm a good kid…

"Final Round!" announced the speakers. I could hear people chanting my name, but honestly I'd forgotten who my opponent was. If he made it to the finals, it wouldn't be an easy match. The only people who yielded early were in the first few branches of the tourney-tree. I stood as the system continued announcing.

"Finalist One: Roxas Destati. Grade: Eleven. Age: Sixteen. Weapon: Dual Keyblades." A bunch of cheers went up as I made my way onto the battle grid. I looked over to the other side briefly to see Aqua waving and Terra give me a thumbs-up. Ah, it felt good to be a champion, well, almost champion. The speakers sounded and a few gasps went around the room. Apparently no one had even been paying attention to this other guy.

"Finalist Two: Zexion Ienzo. Grade: Eleven. Age: Fifteen. Weapon: Lexicon."

Huh, Zexion? Wasn't that the name of the emo kid who glared at us? He looked like the scrawniest guy in the class! I watched him stand and walk onto the battlefield. What was a lexicon anyway? Noting his hands, I scratched my head in confusion. A book?! The guy was gonna fight me with a freaking book?! How did he make it all the way to the finals, teach his opponents to death? Whatever, I didn't make it this far to get beat up by some guy with a book. Even Selphie's 'whip' (it was just a jump rope, but the system relayed it as a whip) was actually pretty effective.

"Roxas! Don't underestimate the lexicon! It's a deadly hell-weapon of doom!" Ven shouted to me. I almost laughed, but no one else seemed to, all with fearful looks on their faces. If it was so powerful, why didn't anyone else choose it? Whatever, it was still just a stupid book. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the book is most definitely not mightier than the key, or in this case, keys.

"3…2…1…Fight!"

_,..-~^*^~-..,_,..-~^*^~-..,_,..-~^*^~-..,_,..-~^*^~-..,_,..-~^*^~-..,_,..-~^*^~-..,_

"Point, Zexion. Score: Eighteen to Zero. Twenty seconds remaining."

So, uh, yeah, I just have one thing to say: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! Seriously, I'm getting owned by a guy with a book?! Then again I wasn't expecting his book to launch freaking magical barriers and crap at me. I'm actually surprised he's only at eighteen points after this whole minute and forty seconds we've been in here. To add insult to injury, the guy hasn't even moved from the spot he started in. Geez, no wonder he's scrawny, but it hurts my pride to know that I can't even approach this guy since he's launching an endless supply of words at me. Like I said, he's basically teaching me to death… and winning.

"Roxas, you dumb piece of crap, you underestimated the lexicon! I told you that you couldn't do that!" I heard Ven shout from the sidelines. Ugh, give it a rest, I know what I'm doing… I think.

Honestly, how do you fight with a guy who launches barriers at you when you get within ten feet of him? Sure, I managed to cut through a few of them with my keyblades, but he doesn't exactly have a limit to how many he can launch. All he has to do is read a few magic words and then, poof, out comes the magic.

Ow, what the crap, did he just throw his book at me?! Oh, right, I forgot to mention, whenever this guy looks like he's feeling cocky, he closes the book and makes it fly around the room to hit me in the head. I'm gonna feel that lump tomorrow. Ow! Cut it out!

"Point, Zexion. Score: Twenty to Zero. Ten seconds remaining."

Okay, the gloves are coming off here. I watched as the book flew back into his hands. He didn't smile, but he almost looked smug. Oh man, he was asking for it, and I was going to wipe that look off his face in the next ten seconds. Using all my energy I lunged at him from across the room. As expected, he let out a few barriers my way, but I was gonna try something new this time.

In the split second I had, I tossed one of my keyblades straight forward, watching as it sliced through all his barriers and spun crazily towards him. With no other option, he held up the book to block the weapon from striking him. Good, a chance to finally get him off guard. Letting out a battle cry, I used all my might to smash the keyblade into the side of his legs. I literally swept him off his feet as he buckled under the hit and collapsed to the floor. Heh, this guy was good at defending himself, but he couldn't take a hit.

"Point, Roxas. Eight seconds remaining."

I couldn't get in enough hits to beat him in eight seconds, even if he was collapsed on the ground, I simply didn't have the energy. I quickly made my move, knowing full well that the only way to win was to get him to yield, or force him to. Good thing for me, he still hadn't recovered from his fall. Picking up his book so that it fell under my dominion (not that I had any idea how to use it) I tossed it aside so that he couldn't do anything. I picked up my other keyblade and held one over his face and the other over his crotch, you know, for good measure…

"Yield, or choose which one of these makes contact first."

Realizing the futility of his situation, Zexion sighed and let his head fall back. "You've bested me. You're the first one to do so since I've been here. I yield."

"Match over, Zexion Ienzo surrenders. Champion: Roxas Destati."

The lights on our side of the gym returned to normal and a huge crowd of mostly people I didn't know came running to my side to congratulate me. I don't know how he managed to do it with all the people around, but Wakka lifted me up on his shoulders so that everyone could see me. The lights on the other side returned to normal as well, indicating that the grade twelve matches were over. On the screen it showed the team that won, Aqua Brightcrest and Terra Earthshaker. Whoa, Terra, even your name makes you sound like a beast.

"Hey, Roxas, congratulations, you won!" shouted Aqua over all the cheering.

"Thanks, so did you guys, so congrats to you too!" Well, better to state the obvious than not say anything… That's not a saying…

"Ven, I'm disappointed," Terra jeered, giving my brother a light punch on the shoulder (it probably still hurt, 'cause it's Terra), "I saw that score you had in the first match. If you're gonna lose, at least make it close!"

"Hey!" Ven joked back, trying to shove the living tank a bit but to no avail because, y'know, it's Terra. "I let him win by that much! You think I would let my noob brother beat me that badly when he has no fighting experience?!"

"Heh, the more things you say, the worse you're making the situation for yourself," Terra laughed, giving him a hard pat on the back. The pat sent Ven flying forwards into the crowd, which wouldn't normally happen, but y'know, it came from Terra.

I was relishing the moment, but a strange sight caught my eye. Zexion was standing by the door, staring at me (creepy, I know), but as soon as he noticed that I saw him, he quickly turned and went into the guys' changeroom. Despite the fact that it was creepy, I wanted to know why he seemed to take such an interest in me, so I made Wakka put me down, and I briskly went off into the changeroom. Meanwhile, I could hear Ven punching Terra as hard as he could for messing with him, but the punches apparently weren't hurting 'cause, y'know, Ven has weak punches. Just kidding, don't tell him I said that, you all know the reason it didn't hurt.

As I went into the changeroom, it was oddly quiet. Usually you'd be able to hear the sounds of clothes or something shifting around, but it was literally silent. Zexion couldn't have left though, because the changerooms only had one door (can someone say fire hazard?) and I hadn't seen him leave before I got to the door.

However, the somewhat mysterious buildup of that very short paragraph was cut short by the sound of the urinal flushing. I rounded the corner to see Zexion rinsing his hands under the tap. Needless to say, he didn't seem all that dangerous like my brother and Tidus had said. Either way, it couldn't hurt to at least congratulate him on the match.

"Hey, uh, Zexion?" I said. No response, not even so much as a glance up at the mirror. Whatever, they did say he was kinda quiet. "Um, you did a good job out there. I, uh, can't say I've ever had to fight anyone like you." Or fight anyone in general, because I'm a good kid…

The silent emo kid wiped his hands on a paper towel and walked right past me without saying a word. Wow, douche. A simple 'thanks, you too' would've sufficed, but I guess walking past without acknowledging my existence is also acceptable. Whatever, that was all I really wanted to say to him. I made my way over to the locker I'd left my clothes in and quickly changed back into my regular strip, not that it was much different from my gym clothes since it was still summer weather. At least this stuff wasn't sweaty. As I turned around to leave the changeroom before the crowd of other guys filed in, I was met with a rather unsettling sight. Zexion was staring again. Seriously? (I say that too much). Not only are you a creepy guy who won't say a word when I congratulate you, but now you're watching me change when we're the only two in here?

"Uh… did you want something?" I asked with an annoyed tone.

"You're… different." Gee, that makes me much more secure… "You're nothing like your idiot brother." Got that right. "Perhaps… I'll have to talk to the Superior about this," and with that he turned and left. Uh, double-you tee eff just happened?

I didn't expect the watchful eyes of a creepy emo kid to initiate the crazy events I had in store for me that year.

Whoa, that's the longest chapter I've ever written for a story and it's only the introduction… That being said, don't expect the length of chapters to stay constant because my chapter lengths usually fluctuate pretty drastically (anywhere from 3000 words to 7000 in this case).

Anyway, what did you guys think? I can't actually start the whole RokuNami thing until Roxas meets the members of Organization XIII because he'll meet Naminé around the same time. Sorry if that's not quite what you were hoping to hear, but I assure you that I'll try to have that happen by chapter 5 AT THE LATEST. It's likely going to occur sooner, but I'll be sure to get it by chapter 5, so worry not, fellow hopeless romantics.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I'd someday like to be a composer for game music, so I'd be really grateful if you guys visited my soundcloud (link on my profile) and checked out some of the songs. I'll admit, none of the songs posted are great pieces, but I'm still progressing, so hopefully you'll see an improvement as time goes on.

So, yeah, please review and thanks for checking this out!

-GengaJupite