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Chapter 10: More than Brawns

The Olympus Coliseum.

Here lied a stadium where great, powerful warriors from around the universe enter and compete in deadly tournaments to truly test their strengths. Some may fight for fame; others may fight for fun and glory, while few my fight to satisfy their greed. Inhabitants of this world visit the Coliseum to watch the games there, betting or cheering on their favorite heroes.

Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy had found themselves standing in front of the large gates of the Coliseum. On each side of the tall doors was a giant golden statue of an gladiator holding a golden sword up high. The two statues crossed swords over the large door. Small pedestals covered the ends of the sandy landscape.

Sora and Kairi stared at the magnificence of the Coliseum. Donald and Goofy were dumbfounded by the bodacious design of the stadium.

"Wow!" Goofy said.

"It's huge!" Sora remarked.

"The Olympus Coliseum!" Donald explained. "A place where everyone around the universe gather to fight each other in a combat tournament!"

"Combat Tournament?!" Sora jolted in excitement.

The three other travelers looked at Sora surprisingly. Sora was suddenly jumping with joy, as he was unable to hold in his enthusiasm. Kairi instantly smiled at Sora's jumpy nature.

"Wow, Sora, I never knew you'd be that into fighting." Kairi chuckled.

"Ahyuk! Yeah, it's kinda sounds like you wanna compete in the tournament!"

Pausing for a moment, Sora suddenly shook off the overexcited aura that just surrounded him. Perhaps some sort of competitive streak was lingering inside himself. He looked at them while scratching his head embarrassingly.

"Oh, right. Sorry! I don't know what came over me…" Sora said.

Donald looked at everyone.

"Come on, let's go inside!" Donald said.

The four travelers entered the small lobby of the Coliseum. In it, were small bowls of fire that lit up the entire room. The walls were smoothly designed with tan bricks, and trophies of different sizes sat in cases rooted onto the bricked sides. On the right side of the lobby, there was a giant block of stone sitting on the ground.

On the opposite side of the room, there was another entrance covered by a wooden sign that read, "ARENA CLOSED". Beside it, there was a small man whose lower body resembled that of a goat, while his round upper body was shaped like a man.

This short goat-man was standing on top of a pedestal with his back turned to them. He was currently writing on a sign that read, "Rules", with a piece of chalk.

The four travelers walked up to the goat-man, who didn't bother to look at whoever was walking to him.

"Um…" Sora spoke out.

The goat-man let out a sigh of relief.

"Good timing. Think you can give me a hand and move that pedestal over there?" he pointed his chalk at the large stone block sitting by one of the walls. "I gotta spruce this place up for the games."

Sora scratched his cheek as he looked at the block of stone sitting nearby.

"Uh, sure, I guess…" Sora said.

Donald crossed his arms at Sora while giving him an annoyed look.

"Oh, so now you're in somebody's janitorial staff?" Donald mocked.

Kairi and Goofy quickly stifled their giggles while Sora shot back an annoyed look at Donald.

"Knock it off, Donald." Sora responded.

Sora walked over to the large pedestal and placed his hands on its side. He used all of his strength and pushed his hands against the stone. Unfortunately, they remained on the same spot, as Sora's shoes scraped the stoned floor as he moved. He looked at Kairi.

"…Uh, a…a little help…?!" Sora asked.

While Donald shook his head at the Keyblade wielder, Kairi walked over besides Sora and placed her hands on the same side of the pedestal. They both pushed with all of their strength combined, but it still wasn't enough.

"Geez, what's taking you so long?!" The goat-man asked.

Sora and Kairi pulled their hands off the pedestal and looked at him.

"It's way too heavy!" Sora responded.

The goat-man jolted up after hearing those words.

"What?! Too heavy?!" the goat-man threw his chalk on the ground. "Since when did you become such a little—?"

The goat-man turned around to see two kids, a duck, and a dog standing in front of him. He widened his eyes in surprise.

"Oh. Wrong guy." the goat-man raised an eyebrow. "But what the heck are you here for anyway?" he hopped off the pedestal and walked up to them. "This here's the world-famous Coliseum—heroes only!" The goat-man started walking towards Donald, who slowly, and uncomfortably, backed away from him. He continued to talk. "And I got my hands full preparing for the games. So run along, pip-squeaks!"

Donald fell back on his rump after the goat-man stopped moving. Sora and Kairi only pouted angrily at him, offended by the goat-man's term "pip-squeak".

The goat-man sighed as he walked over to the large pedestal. "Look, it's like this..." the four travelers' eyes followed the moving goat-man, "Heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum."

Donald crossed his arms while giving him an angry yet serious look.

"You got heroes standing right in front of you!" Donald exclaimed.

The goat-man turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"'Scuse me?" The goat-man asked.

Goofy kindly placed each hand on Sora and Kairi's shoulders, while making a huge smile on his face.

"Yup! These two are real heroes chosen by the Keyblade!" Goofy exclaimed.

Donald nodded. "And we're heroes too!" he proudly referred to himself and Goofy.

Suddenly, the goat-man's eyes widened and his brows rose up.

"Heroes?" the goat-man pointed at both Sora and Kairi, "Those two lil' runts?!" he quickly laughed, his voice echoed across the many large halls of the Coliseum.

Sora shot an angry look at the goat-man. "What's so funny? We've fought a bunch of monsters!"

The goat-man laughed even harder, holding his stomach while leaning over. He suddenly pointed at Sora and Kairi, expressing disbelief that those two were "heroes". After five more seconds of laughing, the goat-man quickly calmed down and looked at them seriously.

The goat-man pointed his thumb at the pedestal.

"Hey, if you can't even move this…" he quickly placed his hands on the pedestal and pushed, "…You can't call yourself…" however, the goat-man had trouble moving the stone block as well, "a hero!" the goat-man suddenly fell to the ground, exhausted from attempting to push the heavy block.

Sora and Kairi only shot withering looks at him, while Donald shook his head annoyingly. Goofy just stood there and watched everything happen.

Panting, the goat-man pushed himself off the ground before looking back at Sora and Kairi.

"Okay, so it takes more than brawn…" the goat-man said.

"So, does that mean you're going to let us in?" Kairi asked.

Furrowing his brows, the goat-man stood up and shot an angry look at them.

"No way!" the goat-man raised up two fingers "Two words: You guys ain't heroes!"

Sora counted the number of words on his finger, which confusedly added up to two. Kairi and he exchanged looks, while Donald raised an eyebrow at the goat-man.

He pointed his thumb at the entrance. "So beat it!"

Having no other choice, the four begrudgingly left the lobby and returned to the front side of the Coliseum. Sora sighed in disappointment.

"So much for true strength…." Sora remarked.

"Yeah…ain't he a stubborn old goat, eh?"

Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy turned back to the Coliseum to see a tall, blue-skinned figure with a blue-flaming head. He wore a black robe that covered most of his body except for his big blue arms. The blue man had an arm lying against a stone platform. He almost looked like he was waiting for them.

Donald shot an angry look at him. "Who are you?"

The man pushed himself off the platform and raised his hands in front of the duck.

"Whoa, easy there, fuzz boy." The man walked over to Sora and Kairi. "Wait, let me guess. You two kids want to enter the games, right?" Suddenly appearing right behind the two, he placed a hand on Sora's shoulder. "Well, then, hey, get a load of this."

The man stuck out a hand between Sora and Kairi. Appearing in a dark-blue light were four three rectangular pieces of papyrus. On each center showed a symbol consisting of a cloud with a lightning bolt right underneath it.

"A pass?" Sora gave the man a quizzical look.

The man chuckled as Sora grabbed the passes. After removing his hand from Sora's shoulder, he walked towards the opposite gates, which were the entrance to the whole area.

"It's all yours. Good luck, you two. I'll be pulling for you." The man said.

The four quickly returned inside the lobby and met with the goat-man again. The goat-man expressed disbelief when seeing them return.

"You four? Didn't I make it clear that you guys—huh?"

Sora presented in his hand four passes, much to the goat-man's surprise. He quickly snatched them from Sora's hands and carefully looked at them.

"How'd you get this?" The goat-man questioned.

Donald crossed his arms at him.

"Does it matter?" Donald asked.

"So can we enter the games now?" Sora asked innocently.

The goat-man's face was filled with suspicion and uncertainty. After brief a moment of hard thinking, however, he gave in.

"…I guess so." The goat-man looked up at the four. "But first, we're gonna start with some training. Gotta see what you four are capable of. Think you can handle that?"

Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy had determined looks on their faces.

"You got it!" Donald answered for everyone.

Meanwhile, in another place, the same mysterious blue man was conversing with another spiky-haired man.

He had blue eyes, and a lean and toned build. His blond hair had small spikes sticking out in every direction. A silver earring was on his left ear. He wore a high-collar, black shirt with a long black sleeve over his left arm. A shoulder plate was placed over his left shoulder. He sported a pair of black gloves. His chest was covered with two straps held in place by a wolf-shaped badge. He wore black pants and black boots, along with a black waist-cloak that covered his left leg.

Holstered on the man's back was a huge sword wrapped in bandages. The blade design on this sword was complex, almost as if six smaller swords were somehow fused into a much larger one.

The spiky-haired man was lying against a stone wall with his arms crossed.

"Alright, Spiky, listen up," the blue man said, "we both already know you're a shoe in for the semi-finals. But once you get up there, you'll be crossing swords with two kids holding giant key in each of their scrawny little hands. So, what I'm gonna need you to do is to…" the man menacingly slid his finger across his neck, "end them. Ya got that?"

The spiky-haired man narrowed his eyes at him.

"Hades, the great god of the Underworld, is afraid of two small kids?" he mocked slightly.

Hades pointed his finger at him.

"Hey, hey," Hades warned, "those kids are stronger than you think! Now, look! I just need you to strike them down with that huge…kitchen knife of yours. Make sure they don't come back up. Got it?!"

The blonde only shook his head in disagreement.

"Not gonna happen. My contract says—"

The flames on the Hades's head flared up. "I KNOW! YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW?!" He poked his finger on the blonde's chest. "I WROTE the CONTRACT! I KNOW it says you're ONLY required to kill Hercules in this tournament, but you gotta fight these brats to get to him!"

The blonde swordsman remained unwavering from the wrath of Hades. The god of the Underworld quickly simmered down as he slid his hand back across his flaming hair. He nonchalantly placed his bony hand on Cloud's shoulder.

"Come on~, it's like that old goat says, 'Rule 11: It's all just a game, so let loose and have fun with it'!" Hades raised an eyebrow. "I mean, a casualty or two along the way's no big deal, right?"

The swordsman only glared at Hades before shrugging his hand off his shoulder. He walked away with the Lord of the Dead glaring at him from behind.

"Geez. Stiffer than the stiffs back home. Still…suckers like him are hard to come by…"

Suddenly, a deep-sounding, vicious growl echoed right behind Hades. Appearing in the dark were three pairs of ferocious eyes and three sets of sharp teeth.

Inside the Coliseum, Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy were currently being trained by the goat-man, whose name was Phil.

Sora and Kairi were in one practice arena, where they were currently destroying barrels as part of their exercise. Goofy was running through Phil's dangerous obstacle course rigged in another arena. Donald, however, was busy casting spells as Phil himself was coaching him through.

Sora quickly smashed through each barrel with ease, using a combination of his Flowmotion abilities and his physical combat prowess. Kairi, on the other hand, was having a hard time keeping up with Sora. She heavily swung and smashed each barrel with her Keyblade.

Unlike Sora, Kairi didn't have much experience in fighting. She never wielded a wooden sword or sparred with anyone like Sora did during that one time with Tidus. Sure she fought the Heartless before, but Sora technically did most of the fighting, especially against the two Heartless leaders that they've faced. Overall, she's pretty much lived a safe, ordinary life until she encountered Sora.

Sora had just finished smashing every one of his barrels, sliding and twirling on the ground with a confident smile on his face. He looked up at Kairi, who still had about three barrels left to smash. Because he didn't want to interrupt her, Sora stood by and patiently waited for Kairi to finish up.

After a short while, Kairi had finally destroyed the last barrel. She let out a sigh afterwards before looking at her Keyblade thoughtfully.

She had a feeling that she may not be getting any closer to improving herself. Kairi felt that she was still going in a straight line; she wasn't getting better nor was she getting any worse. She just wanted to know what she could do to change that.

As he swung the Keyblade over his shoulders, Sora turned around to see Kairi standing still as she stared down at her Keyblade. He tilted his head at her in curiosity.

Wanting to know what was chewing her up, Sora called out to the young Keyblader.

"Kairi." Sora called.

Getting out of her thoughts, Kairi quickly turned her head to a curious Sora.

"You feeling okay, Kairi?" Sora asked.

Kairi quickly made a reassuring smile and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Sora skeptically raised an eyebrow, as Kairi slowly pointed her eyes at the ground. After a few seconds of silence, he saw her opening her mouth again.

"Um, actually…" Kairi looked up at Sora again, "do you think you can teach me how to fight better?"

Sora looked at Kairi. He was mildly surprised by how she was doubting herself already. In fact, he didn't expect her to do so at all. Sora thought Kairi did fine in all of the worlds they'd travelled so far. After all, she'd managed to fend off the Heartless, let alone vanquish them into nothingness. She'd even withstood against the much larger Heartless, such as the one in purple armor or the other with the giant, flaming clubs.

Then again, she did have Goofy at her side. Maybe it was that Kairi just wanted to prove herself that she can be stronger, that she doesn't have to burden anyone with her vulnerability anymore.

But what surprised Sora the most was that Kairi wanted him to teach her how to fight. He never recalled teaching anyone how to fight, according to his limited amount of memories. What could someone like him know about teaching anything? At the same time, however, Sora felt flattered that someone like Kairi actually looked up to him with respect, unlike Phil. So, he told himself that there was always a first time for everything.

After blinking his eyes, Sora formed a kind smile on his face speaking to a self-conscious Kairi.

"Sure! Why not?" Sora answered.

Kairi smiled back at Sora, happy that he was willing to help her out.

Sora walked in front of Kairi with his Keyblade hanging to his side. Kairi looked at her young teacher with anticipation. Sora opened his mouth.

"Let's start with your posture first."

Twilight Town.

The city in an endless sunset. This subtle place happened to be one of he largest worlds ever known. Countless people lived in this quiet, peaceful world. Trains were used as a common form of transportation to get across to distant areas. This city is also recognized for its delicious sea-salt ice cream. It was also where the so-called "Struggle Tournaments" were held. Struggle had been considered to be a common sport in this city. Although it appeared to be a simple fighting competition, there were about three different weapons known as "Struggle Bats", each suited for one's own fighting style.

While some worlds resided in the Light and others in the Dark, Twilight Town was located between both. Not many Heartless lurked inside this huge city, but there was without a possible reason to explain why. Usually, Heartless can appear in numbers in just about anywhere, but not in this particular world. It was a mystery as to why Twilight Town had lacked a significant number of Heartless.

Inside a two-storied house, a fifteen-year-old boy was sitting on top of the bed, his arms wrapped around his knees.

He had blond, spiked-up hair. He was dressed in a black coat ornamented with silver necklaces, along with black gloves and black shoes.

He had two blue eyes, but they were blank of any emotions. His face lacked an expression as well. His empty eyes stared into the sheets in front. The boy was as still as stone, as he refused to budge since whenever he got onto his bed. But then a voice called to him.

"Roxas?"

The boy, Roxas, slowly turned his head to the door. Standing by the entrance was a young girl just about his age. She, too, had blue eyes and blond hair, which draped over her right shoulder. She wore a small white dress that reached to the top of her knees, along with a pair of blue sandals.

Roxas look at the girl without uttering a single word, but she could tell in his eyes that he was curious as to why she came to him. The girl only gave a gentle smile as she looked at him.

"I just wanted to check up on you, to see if you were okay." The girl answered.

Roxas turned his head back to stare at the sheets again. The girl started to walk up to the boy before sitting in front of him on the bed. She took a look at Roxas's eyes and face curiously.

"Roxas, did you get any sleep recently?" the boy didn't respond, "You look kind of tired."

"…fine…" Roxas partially muffled through his coat, still not looking at the girl.

The girl's face slowly formed a worried expression. "When was the last time you slept?"

Roxas's eyes moved slightly to the right. His neck slouched down behind his knees.

"…two…weeks ago…"

The girl closed her eyes, her concern for the boy now growing drastically. Opening her eyes again, she looked back at a tired Roxas very worriedly.

"Roxas, you need to sleep." She said. "It's not going to be good for you if you keep it up. You could pass out at any time."

The girl could see Roxas's hands tightening his grip on his sleeves. His face now had a mixed expression of guilt and sorrow. She hoped she didn't hurt him too much.

"…sorry…" Roxas answered quietly.

The girl reached her hand over to one of Roxas's hands and held it gently.

"It's okay, just…just forget what I said. Okay?" The girl smiled gently.

Roxas nodded. "…yeah…" he muttered.

The girl still looked at him. "So, why couldn't you sleep?" she asked.

Roxas blinked. "...nightmares..."

"Nightmares?" The girl slowly grew concerned. "What about?"

Roxas slowly opened his mouth.

"…I…I…"

She could see his mouth quivering as it remained open, unable to speak any more words. Quickly realizing her mistake, she shook her head at Roxas and gave him a concerned look. Roxas looked at her confusedly.

"If you don't want to talk about it, it's okay. I understand." The girl answered.

Looking at her, Roxas nodded slightly.

"…okay." His eyes were on the sheets again.

The girl looked at Roxas carefully. She carefully analyzed his current outfit, moving her eyes from top to bottom. She raised an eyebrow.

Has he been wearing that same outfit? The girl pondered to herself.

Feeling the girl's stare on him, Roxas looked up as his eyes met hers. Suddenly, the girl smiled cutely.

"Hey, how about we go shop for some new clothes for you?" the girl suggested. "It's probably best if you got out of those soon."

Roxas pointed at his black coat while looking at the girl innocently. She nodded happily at him. The boy's eyes were back on the sheets.

"…I…don't want to trouble…you…" Roxas answered.

The girl shook her head at him. "You don't have to worry. I want to do this for you. Besides, you should probably get out of this house more too." She smiled

"…um…"

The girl went to Roxas's side as she tried to get a better look at his face. Roxas closed his eyes while letting out a light sigh. He then opened his eyes halfway.

"…okay…" Roxas answered.

The girl tilted her head at him, almost as if she was waiting for Roxas to say something. He turned his head to her as he noticed her expression.

Roxas sighed again.

"…can we…shop for some clothes…?"

The girl smiled at him. "What's the magic word?"

Roxas swallowed. "Please…Naminé…?"

Naminé giggled as she made another adorable smile on her face. Suddenly, she wrapped her arms around Roxas in a caring, friendly embrace.

"Okay."