The shore lay wide and pale beneath the lavender sky, its sand washed in the soft light of golden clouds and low gold light stretching over the water. The sea moved in slow, quiet sheets beside them, leaving purple-edged foam along the beach before drawing back again. Farther inland, red trees leaned against the wind near broken stone towers, and the cliffs rose in worn gray shapes like old bones pushed up through the earth.
"Well, kids..." Eda said, lifting one hand as though presenting a sunrise, "Did you ever in your life think you'd see something as breathtaking as this?"
[Play Innocent Times - Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST Extended]
Luz, Sora, Eda, and King stood together on the sand, all of them facing the enormous shape that had washed up before them. At first glance it might have been mistaken for a hill of wet stone and refuse, but the longer one looked, the harder it became to pretend it was anything so simple. It was a giant sluglike creature, dead and swollen from the sea, its gray body stretched across the beach in a long, heavy mass. Rusted scraps, broken boxes, bent metal, cracked bottles, and half-buried oddities clung to its hide and spilled from folds in its flesh. Circular lumps rose along its back like dull bronze blisters, while one enormous petal-like appendage lay open near its head, pink inside and stained with mud, its dark spiral marking exposed to the air. Flies and little beach insects moved around the slick patches of slime, and a sour, briny smell hung over everything.
Eda looked at it with the bright satisfaction of someone who had just arrived at a museum exhibit made entirely for her. Luz stood beside her with her shoulders pulled in, trying not to stare too long at any one part of the corpse. Sora had gone still in the sand, his gaze moving from the bulging back to the heaps of garbage around it, and King, small beside the others, looked far less troubled by the whole thing than anyone sensible should have been.
The question drifted over the beach while a wave sighed behind them. Luz and Sora continued to stare. Then the truth of what they were facing settled in fully: the thing before them was not only gigantic, not only covered in trash and sludge, but absolutely dead.
"I don't like this," Luz and Sora said together.
Eda's grin did not fade. If anything, the complaint seemed to please her. "Yes, it doesn't get much more inspiring than the trash slug. It makes a home, a life from what others have thrown by the wayside. Until, blam! It gets blasted by a wave one day and croaks from all the salt. And then we get to sell the stuff it ate."
She reached aside and put a pickaxe into Luz's hands as casually as if she were handing over a school pencil. Luz looked down at the tool, then back toward the carcass, where a broken appliance jutted halfway from a mound of dried slime near the slug's side.
"Please don't make me," Luz said.
King leaned forward with eager little interest, his skull-like head tilted toward the dead creature. "Aw, come on, Luz. It's not every day you get to go to the dump and pick apart a garbage carcass."
"Ah, nuts to you all," Eda said.
She took up her own pickaxe and marched toward the creature without waiting for agreement. The head of the tool struck the carcass with a wet, unpleasant crack. A crust of dried slime and debris broke away, and several pieces of junk slid down the slug's side, clattering onto the sand around her boots. Eda bent at once to inspect the pile, undisturbed by the smell or the sound, while Luz stayed several steps back with the pickaxe held far from her body.
"So, Eda..." Luz began.
Eda swung again.
Glass shattered somewhere inside the dead slug, the sharp sound cutting across Luz's sentence. Bits of green bottle skittered down over a patch of yellowish sludge.
"What if we tried some new lessons for my apprenticeship? Like..."
Eda drove the pickaxe in again.
More glass shattered, followed by the muffled collapse of something hollow beneath the creature's thick skin.
"Read ancient scrolls or mix potions, or-"
Eda crouched and started digging through the newly freed junk with both hands, her long gray hair falling over one shoulder as she rooted around. "Ugh. That sounds like a bunch of magic school stuff."
Luz's expression changed at once. The horror of the carcass did not vanish, but a different kind of attention came into her face, bright and sudden enough to draw her a step closer through the sand.
"Wait. Is there a magic school here? Like, winding towers, cute uniforms, dark plots that threaten your life kind of magic school?"
"Mm‐hmm," Eda said, still sorting through trash as if the topic were no more interesting than a bent spoon. "What's worse, they force you to learn magic the 'proper' way. But magic isn't proper. It's wild and unpredictable. And that's why it's so beautiful. I didn't finish school, and look at me! Who wouldn't envy where I am right now?"
She stood with slime on her hands, a pickaxe planted near one foot, and a dead trash slug behind her large enough to be mistaken for a beached island. Luz looked at Eda for a moment, then down at the sand, the hope on her face thinning into disappointment. Sora, still beside her, looked at Eda with one eyebrow raised, his eyes moving from the sludge on her arms to the heaps of garbage around the carcass.
Eda noticed the silence and shifted quickly, reaching for something more practical. "Uh... Hey, here's a lesson. A great witch is resourceful, like this."
Before Luz could move away, Eda took her by the arm and guided her hand into a slick patch of slime near the slug's side. The substance stretched between Luz's fingers in greasy strands, cold and sticky, while bits of grit clung to her skin. Eda swished Luz's hand through it until something round and soft came loose with a faint sucking sound.
"Oh, hey," Luz said weakly, holding up the dripping lump. "Greasy slime ball."
"Use your slime ball wisely, young witch," Eda said with complete seriousness. She released Luz's arm and turned back toward the carcass as another wet burp of trapped air escaped from somewhere under its hide. "Back at it! We'll hit the stink nodes first."
Luz lowered the slime ball, looked at the creature's massive body, then at the beach beyond it, where the living sea at least had the decency to keep moving. "Actually, if it's okay, I think I'll head home and look at pictures of animals that are still alive. Love you, King."
King giggled, pleased at Luz scratching his belly.
"You little beach peach," Luz said.
King sighed, softened by the nickname despite the dead slug, the smell, and the whole ruined afternoon spread around them on the sand.
Eda watched Luz leave with casual acknowledgement, then turned her attention back toward the carcass with the pickaxe resting against her shoulder. The trash slug lay across the beach in its enormous gray sprawl, half-dried slime shining in patches under the warm sky, while the heaps around its body shifted and settled with little clinks and wet slides. Bottles, warped pans, odd little boxes, cracked shells, and pieces of machinery had gathered in the sand as though the dead creature had spent its whole life swallowing the contents of abandoned houses.
"Welp," Eda said. "It looks like it's just you and me, Sora."
Sora smiled nervously and slowly walked backward, his shoes pressing shallow marks into the sand as he put a little more space between himself and the nearest puddle of yellowish sludge. The smell of salt, rot, and old garbage came off the slug in heavy waves, and somewhere inside the carcass something gave a soft, bubbling groan that made his smile tighten.
"Yeah, I'll help from here. I'll use my wind magic to help clear the clutter."
Eda brightened at once, as if he had offered the most sensible suggestion of the day. "Good idea!"
She stepped back into the mess with renewed purpose, bracing one boot against the sand while she bent over a mound of debris lodged near one of the slug's folds. Sora remained where the air smelled a little less fatal, lifting one hand uncertainly as a faint stir of wind gathered around his fingers.
Eda shoved aside a bent lid, then a broken crate, then dug both hands into a clump of trash that had dried together like some awful beach nest. "There we go." She pulled harder, shoulders bunching as the pile resisted her.
The clutter suddenly gave way. A tangle of items spilled down the slug's side, knocking loose scraps and jars and unidentifiable chunks of hardened muck. Sora flinched, and the wind around his hand scattered a few lighter pieces harmlessly across the sand, but one long brass trombone slipped free from the heap before anyone could catch it. It bounced once, gave a warped musical bleat, and dropped straight onto King.
"Ow!" King struggled beneath the instrument, his small legs kicking as the bell swallowed most of his head.
"This is awesome!" Eda cheered.
[End Innocent Times - Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST Extended]
Meanwhile, Luz walked with the slime ball cupped in one hand, holding it away from herself as much as she could without dropping it. It sagged over her fingers in a greasy lump, faintly translucent, with little bits of sand and unidentifiable trash speckled inside it. Every few steps it wobbled, as if it had opinions about being carried. Luz slowed beneath a leaning tree and stared down at it, her earlier excitement about magic school and apprenticeship dimmed by the memory of Eda digging through a dead trash slug with the pride of a treasure hunter.
"Ugh! If magic's all about digging for slime balls, maybe I don't have the stomach for it."
She turned the lump over once, grimaced, and finally tucked it into her pocket with two careful fingers, trying not to think about what it would do to the fabric. The pocket bulged unpleasantly against her shorts as she resumed walking, her shoulders sinking a little while the forest path curved ahead.
"Luz, wait up!"
Luz stopped and turned around. Sora came along the path behind her, moving quickly between the trees, his expression relieved now that he was no longer standing beside a giant dead slug. A few flecks of sand still clung to his shoes, and his hair stirred lightly with the last trace of wind magic he must have used to hurry after her.
Luz's face brightened. "Sora! I thought you were helping Eda with the... giant dead... slug thing."
Sora slowed beside her and glanced back through the trees, as if the carcass might somehow still be visible beyond the woods. "Oh, we finished already. Eda and King started to argue about something, so I went on ahead."
"Oh." Luz looked from him to the winding path ahead, where the trees thinned slightly in the direction of home. Whatever disappointment had followed her from the beach eased a little now that she was no longer walking alone with a pocket full of slime. "Well, ready to head back home?"
"Yeah."
They continued together beneath the crooked branches, leaving the stink of the shore farther behind with each step, while the slime ball rode heavily in Luz's pocket like a very small, very disgusting reminder of the lesson Eda had insisted on giving her.
Then a voice carried through the trees, small but determined, rising from somewhere off the path.
"You can do it! You can!"
Sora stopped first, his head turning toward the sound. "Huh?"
Luz's face shifted from gloomy thoughtfulness to sharp curiosity. "Mysterious voice of encouragement?"
[Play Lazy Afternoons - Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX Extended Soundtrack]
The two of them left the path carefully, pushing through low branches and broad leaves as the voice continued somewhere ahead. The ground dipped a little beneath the bushes, where roots tangled over stones, and the light came through in broken green strips. Luz crouched first, and Sora leaned beside her as they peeked through the leaves.
A witch girl sat alone on a rock in the small clearing beyond. She had short turquoise-blue hair that framed her face in a neat, rounded shape, and large glasses rested over anxious eyes. Her uniform looked carefully put together, color-coded in a way that made it seem official: a school outfit with clean lines and a track-marked design, tidy enough to stand out against the wildness of the woods. She had the posture of someone trying very hard to convince herself she was prepared.
Luz drew in a soft gasp. "No! Little witch girl."
The witch girl stood from the rock and began to pace in a tight circle around a small flower growing near her feet. Her hands moved as she talked herself through whatever burden had driven her into the clearing, and her voice carried that strained cheerfulness of someone stacking encouragement against panic.
"You can do it. Even if you get a bad grade, it's not a reflection of you as a witch. And my parents are right. There are better opportunities on this track. Now, get to school!"
As she turned, her foot came down in the wrong place. The flower crumpled under her shoe, its stem bent flat into the dirt and its little petals crushed against the ground.
"Oh, no! Oh, little friend! I'm sorry!"
The witch girl dropped to her knees at once, all thoughts of grades and school tracks forgotten in the face of the broken flower. She raised one finger over it and drew a careful circle in the air. Green light followed the motion, bright and clean against the dim clearing, until a glowing ring hung above the crushed petals. Tiny green orbs drifted from the circle like fireflies, settling over the flower and sinking into its bent stem. The little plant straightened, its petals lifting again as if time had gently folded back around it.
Luz gasped from behind the bush.
Sora stayed very still, his eyes fixed on the restored flower and the fading green shimmer above it. The shape of the spell, the gentle work of it, and the way the magic gathered into repair instead of force held his attention.
The witch girl's ear wiggled a little as the last of the light vanished. Sora noticed it despite himself, and for a quiet second, hidden behind the leaves, he found the small movement unexpectedly adorable.
[End Lazy Afternoons - Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX Extended Soundtrack]
Then her posture changed. She had heard something. Her head lifted, and her eyes shifted toward the bushes as someone approached.
[Play Secret of Neverland - Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days OST Extended]
The girl who approached came rolling along the path on a wooden wheelbarrow, its single front wheel bumping over roots and stones while a large pot rocked in the tray. She wore the same school uniform as Willow, though she carried it with a sharper, more practiced confidence. Her hair fell to her chin in two clean shades of aquamarine, the lighter color showing along the side and the darker green sweeping over the top, while a brown patch of hair at the front was pulled back into a small ponytail that kept it out of her eyes. The style gave her face an angular neatness, made sharper by her pointed ears, narrow golden eyes, and the unimpressed set of her mouth. Her cloak sat neatly across her shoulders, fastened with a round gold button, and her long mauve sleeves and leggings were matched with dark boots that looked too polished for wandering through the woods with a rattling pot.
She had been reading as she came, holding the book open with the easy carelessness of someone certain the path would clear for her. Only when the wheelbarrow drew near the rock did she turn her head toward Willow, who was still kneeling near the revived flower.
"Willow! Wow. You're so unnoticeable I almost rolled into ya," the girl said, and her little chuckle made the words worse rather than lighter.
The restored flower drooped again beside Willow as though the clearing itself had felt the sting. Willow stood slowly, her hands drawing in close to her sides, the confidence she had tried to build for herself disappearing under the other girl's gaze.
"Hi, Amity."
Amity's eyes moved from Willow to the pot nearby, then back to Willow with a practiced kind of concern that did not bother hiding its edge. "Uh, shouldn't you get to class early to prep your..."
Before she could finish, Willow's pot began to rattle. The ceramic shook against the ground, wobbling from side to side until it tipped over and struck the dirt with a dull crack. A purple substance spilled out in a thick, miserable heap, groaning and gasping as it spread over the roots. Willow lowered her head, the movement small but heavy.
"Oh, Willow," Amity said. "You don't have anything to show, do you?"
Behind the bush, Luz leaned closer, her eyes bright with offended fascination. "Witch drama!"
Sora did not share her excitement. His expression hardened as Willow pulled her hood up, trying to hide the embarrassed heat rising in her face. The sight of it quieted the clearing around him. The broken little flower, the spilled purple sludge, the smug poise of the girl beside the wheelbarrow—all of it settled into something he understood too quickly.
Amity sighed as if Willow's humiliation had inconvenienced her. "This is why people call you 'Half‐a‐Witch Willow.'"
Her own pot rattled then, a neat, controlled sound compared to Willow's spill. Amity's mouth curved with satisfaction.
"Oh, it looks like someone wants to say something to you."
She removed the top of her pot and straightened beside the wheelbarrow, lifting one hand with the casual authority of someone accustomed to demonstrations going exactly as she intended.
"Abomination-"
Amity snapped her fingers.
"-rise."
The purple substance inside her pot rose at once, gathering itself into a thick, glossy mass before stretching upward into a humanoid shape. Its body formed in sagging limbs and heavy shoulders, the surface bubbling with weak breaths as it pulled itself together.
"Gasping," the Abomination went, then groaned.
It lumbered toward Willow and bent over her. One purple hand lifted, damp and heavy, and drew a star on her forehead. The mark sat there, small and ridiculous against Willow's skin.
The Abomination groaned again. "You're a... star."
"Aw. It's like mine."
Amity touched the gold star-shaped badge on her uniform, the one that read "TOP STUDENT," and angled it so it caught the light. "But much smaller and meaningless. As Top Student, it's my duty to tell you to keep at it. Even you could get a passing grade someday. Abomination, cower."
The Abomination folded in on itself with another groan and slid back into the pot, losing its shape until it was only purple sludge again. Amity replaced the lid, satisfied, and took hold of the wheelbarrow handles.
"See you in class, superstar."
She lifted the wheelbarrow and walked away with a smug look on her face, the wheel squeaking over the forest path while the pot settled back into place. Willow pulled down her hood in frustration, left standing near the wilted flower and the tipped-over remains of her own failed abomination.
From behind the bush, Luz's anger finally pushed past stealth. She stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at Amity.
Sora stayed low beside her, but his eyes followed Amity as she disappeared between the trees. The annoyance in him had turned sharper at her insulting Willow. Who does she think she is?
[End Secret of Neverland - Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days OST Extended]
Willow wiped the purple goop from her forehead with the heel of her hand, smearing the star into an ugly streak before it came away. Amity's wheelbarrow had already creaked out of sight between the trees, but the shape of her words remained behind in the clearing, hanging over the wilted flower, the spilled abomination sludge, and Willow's lowered shoulders. The little clearing seemed too small to hold the humiliation she had been trying to swallow all morning.
"'Oh, see you in class, superstar!'" Willow said, pitching her voice into a bitter imitation before her own anger broke through. "I hate when she does that. I hate making abominations. I hate getting bad grades. Ugh! I can't stand this anymore. RrrrAAA!"
[Play Face It! - Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories Extended Soundtrack]
Luz and Sora gasped together from behind the bush.
The ground answered Willow before either of them could move. A tremor ran through the clearing, shaking loose dirt from the roots and sending tiny stones skittering under the leaves. Then thorned vines burst up from the earth in twisting green ropes, their barbs catching the light as they whipped through the air. One of them lashed around Luz's leg before she could scramble backward, tightening with a rough scrape and yanking her out from behind the bush toward Willow.
"Ahh!" Luz screamed as she hit the ground and slid across the dirt, clawing at the roots and leaves beneath her.
"Luz!" Sora shouted as he sprang after Luz at once. He ran into the clearing and jumped in front of her, planting himself between her and the thrashing vines as his Keyblade appeared in his hand with a bright flash. He lowered into a battle stance, feet braced in the shaken earth, the weapon angled across his body while the vines coiled and snapped around him.
Willow turned sharply toward them. Her eyes glowed a fierce green, her face briefly transformed by the force of her own magic. Sora gritted his teeth and held his ground, prepared to strike if he had to, but he did not rush forward.
[End Face It! - Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories Extended Soundtrack]
The anger in Willow's expression wavered almost as soon as she saw them. The glow faded from her eyes, and horror replaced it as she realized what had come out of the ground at her command.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no!"
Willow ran toward Luz and dropped to her knees, pulling the thorned vine loose with frantic care. The plant slackened beneath her hands and retreated into the dirt, leaving Luz sitting in the leaves with scratches across her clothes and skin. Sora immediately de-summoned his Keyblade, the weapon vanishing from his grip as soon as the danger passed.
"I'm so sorry!" Willow said.
"It's okay," Luz answered, though she was still catching her breath. "The thorns only went through a few layers of skin."
Willow leaned closer in alarm, but her concern shifted into curiosity as her eyes caught the round shape of Luz's ears. She stared at them, her face softening into wonder.
"So... circle-y."
Luz squealed and quickly covered her ears with both hands.
Willow gasped. "You're human! This is astounding!" She gasped again, even brighter this time. "A human on the Boiling Isles!"
She took Luz's hands and helped her up from the ground, her earlier shame forgotten under the shock of discovery. Leaves clung to Luz's clothes, and a little abomination goo still marked the edge of the clearing where Willow's failed pot had spilled.
"How'd you get here? What are you doing here?"
Sora stepped a little closer, studying Willow with new interest now that the vines were gone. "Wait. You've never seen humans before?"
[Play Kairi ~ Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX Remastered OST]
Willow turned toward him. The moment she saw his face clearly, a blush rose into her cheeks. Sora noticed the sudden pause and tilted his head slightly, waiting while Willow seemed to lose the thread of her own question.
"Hello?"
[End Kairi ~ Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX Remastered OST]
Willow snapped out of it. "Oh, hi. I didn't see you there."
She turned quickly back to Luz, as if looking away from Sora might help her regain some order in her thoughts. "Is he a friend of yours?"
"Yup," Luz said. "He's also human."
[Play Lazy Afternoons - Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX Extended Soundtrack]
Willow turned back to Sora, her eyes widening all over again. "Another one?! Two humans?!"
She backed away a step, looking between them as though the forest had produced two impossible creatures at once and expected her to remain calm about it.
"This is amazing! How and why are there two humans here in the Boiling Isles?!"
Before either of them could answer properly, bells began pealing somewhere beyond the trees. The sound carried through the woods in clear metallic waves, cutting through the clearing and making Willow stiffen at once.
"Uh, I'm sorry. I can't stay. I have to disappoint my teacher. It was nice to meet you, humans."
Luz moved quickly to keep her from leaving, the thought of the glowing spell and the restored flower returning to her with full force. "Wait! I'm Luz, and he's Sora. And you're Willow, right? What you did with that flower and those plants, it was... wow."
Willow looked down, touched by the praise but unable to rest in it. "Thanks, but... I'm not even supposed to be doing plant magic. My parents put me on the abomination track at school."
Luz squealed and grabbed hold of Willow with both hands, all caution swept away. "Like, magic school?"
Willow nodded.
"That's so cool! I'm so jealous."
Luz let go of Willow, her excitement dimming into longing as she remembered the path she had been walking and the slime ball still tucked in her pocket. "I have a teacher, but her lessons are a bit untraditional. I bet she wouldn't even let me enroll. But I wish I could spend one day there."
Willow glanced toward the direction of the school bells, then down at the puddle of failed abomination goop on the ground. "I wish I could get a passing grade for once. Then people would stop calling me 'Half‐a‐Witch Willow.'"
She kicked the puddle of purple sludge, and it quivered miserably against the dirt.
Luz's eyes sharpened with a new idea. "Hey, wait. I know how we can both get what we want."
With a big grin spreading across her face, she crouched and plunged both hands into the abomination goop. The substance clung to her fingers in thick purple strands as she scooped up two handfuls and began slathering it over herself with alarming confidence.
"Make me your abomination. I'll get you a good grade, and you can get me into magic school. It's fiendishly clever."
Willow and Sora stared at her in matching confusion, the forest briefly still around them except for the distant bells.
"What?" Willow and Sora said together.
"I saw that girl's thing," Luz said, spreading more sludge over her shirt. "It's just chunks of stuff that talks weird. I'm chunks of stuff, and I talk weird!"
Willow blushed a little, then giggled despite herself. "That's true." Her smile came uncertainly at first, then with a little more warmth as the idea took hold. "Okay. It's a deal. Luz."
Willow and Luz shook hands in agreement, both of them apparently willing to ignore the fact that one of them was covered in magical sludge and the other was trusting a stranger she had nearly attacked with thorned vines only moments before.
"This is a great plan," Luz said.
Then both of them looked down and realized their hands were coated in abomination goo. Their joined grip stretched between them in sticky purple strings.
"Oops," Willow said. "Abomination goo."
They tried to pull apart, but the sludge held fast. Luz tugged one way, and Willow tugged the other, both of them straining until the grip finally gave. Luz stumbled backward and fell straight into the abomination puddle with a wet splat.
"Great plan," Luz said from the ground.
Sora looked from Luz to Willow, then toward the sound of the bells. The school lay somewhere beyond the trees, and whatever curiosity Luz felt, he could not ignore the way trouble seemed to find her whenever she moved more than three steps without supervision.
"I'm coming too."
Willow turned to him, still holding one goo-covered hand away from her uniform. "Oh. Are you interested in learning as well?"
"Something like that. Plus, I want to make sure Luz doesn't get hurt."
Luz, who had been pushing herself up from the puddle, paused as a thought struck her. She glanced at Willow, then quickly took Sora by the arm and pulled him a short distance away through the leaves.
"Excuse us for a bit, Willow."
Willow remained near the rock, watching with polite confusion while Luz and Sora stopped far enough away for privacy. Luz leaned in, lowering her voice while still keeping one eye on the witch girl.
"Uh, Sora? What about..."
She looked at Willow and then back at him.
"...your 'mission'?"
Sora answered in the same low voice, his expression settling into something more serious than the school scheme. "Oh, I did some searching way early in the morning. Unfortunately, the trail's cold. I'll have to try again at a later time."
That explanation was enough for the moment. The two walked back to Willow, where the puddle of abomination goop had begun to settle into the dirt, and the school bells still urged them onward from somewhere beyond the woods.
Luz looked down at herself, then at Willow, then finally at Sora. "Wait. I'm going in as Willow's Abomination. How are you gonna get in?"
Sora crossed his arms and closed his eyes, thinking it through with the grave seriousness of someone considering a battle plan rather than a school visit.
"Hmm, I could just say that I'm getting a school tour as a future student."
Willow brightened with quick relief. "Oh, that'll work."
[End Lazy Afternoons - Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX Extended Soundtrack]
After a short walk, they arrived.
[Play Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST - The Promised Beginning]
The building rose beyond the red forest like a palace built for lessons, ceremonies, and trouble. Pale walls stood in broad tiers, marked here and there with brick-colored patches, while tall arched windows lined the towers and lower halls in orderly rows. The central tower climbed above the rest of the structure, capped with a deep teal dome and crowned by a small spire, with a round eye-like ornament set high beneath the roof. Below it, an arched sign waited above the entrance, framed by columns and banners that hung over the front steps.
A long walkway led toward the school through the warm-colored grounds, with strange red trees gathered on either side and enormous curved bones rising in the distance behind the rooftops. Students moved along the path in small clusters, some hurrying with books tucked under their arms, others dragging supplies or floating odd little objects beside them. The whole place seemed alive with motion, bells, footsteps, voices, and the faint promise of magic happening just out of sight.
Willow pushed her wheelbarrow along the walkway, the pot inside it rocking slightly with each bump. Sora walked beside her, looking up at the towers and windows with quiet interest, while Luz remained hidden inside the pot beneath the layer of abomination goop, doing her best not to shift too much.
"Welcome to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics. Remember to stay hidden, okay, Luz?"
From inside the pot came a muffled squeal, followed by a small giggle that made the lid tremble.
Sora took in the sight of the school, thinking his friends back home would love to see this before continuing on with Willow.
[End Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep OST - The Promised Beginning]