Cleanse The World

Roxas wasn't quite sure what was going on. He'd recently gotten a letter saying for him to meet at this weird shrine, and so stupidly, he went. It had mentioned something about needing a Keyblade Master, and while he understood it was his responsibility to fight, he couldn't understand why he'd been chosen and not Sora. Granted, he did have two Keyblades instead of just one, but Sora was the chosen one to save all the worlds and all that, not him.

Well, at least Olette, Hayner, and Pence were convering for him. He wasn't sure on any excuse Hayner could make, but Olette and Pence would be more than helpful. So, he sat under the Tori Gate, waiting for whoever had called him to show up.

Ash was snoozing away at home. He hadn't been home in ages, and he was making full use of his bed. So soft, so puffy... He'd missed his bed so much. He never wanted to wake up.

Too bad his mom wanted him to run to the store. Grumbling, Ash trudged out of his house and to the grocery store.

Ash was running home from the store, when a pidgey landed on his shoulder and offered him its leg. Pikachu gave the bird pokemon a look and a small "chu" that asked what it wanted. The bird cooed back that it had a message.

The pokemon trainer, however, was completely oblivious to the content of the exchange. All he saw was the piece of paper tied on the pidgey's leg. He untied it, and the bird took off.

"Champion pokemon trainer," he read, a huge grin spreading across his face, "we request your help in a matter of greatest importance." The rest of the letter was details on where and when to meet, as well as how much he'd be paid, so Ash pocketted the message, dropped off the groceries, grabbed all his adventure things and said bye to his mom. He would've been out sooner, but his mom had to fuss and make sure he had everything.

Then he was out of there, on the road again and running toward a new adventure.

Roxas noticed a couple people at the station accross the street from the gate. All right, so Roxas had gotten the location a little wrong. The letter had said "the station by the shrine" and all Roxas had remembered was the shrine part. He didn't usually mix up locations, but it happened to everyone.

He walked over to the people and asked, "Hey, are you here for that mission thing too?"

Feeling a little awkward, Roxas thrust his hand forward for anyone to take. "I'm Roxas, a Keyblade Master. You both are...?" He figured that if they had to go on this mission thing together, they ought to know a little more about one another.

Roxas tilted his head. He was just a normal kid. Well, normal in all facts except that he was a Nobody (though he was perfectly human now). Nobody knew he had been a Nobody except Hayner, Pence, Olette, and the Destiny Islands gang. So how did this guy know his name? Was he secretly a Nobody?

"Yes, I'm Roxas," the Keyblade Master replied guardedly.

"Wait, demons?" Roxas's eyes widened. "Like, Tengu and stuff? Sorry, I only deal with Heartless and Nobodies. I don't know if I can fight demons." As usual, Roxas was unsure of himself. Even as a Nobody, when he shouldn't have felt confidence or the lack there of, he'd always been worried that he wasn't good enough. He swallowed hard. "I-I may be a Keyblade master, but the Keyblade only hurts Heartless."

Okay, that was a bit of a lie. He'd seen more than just Heartless and Nobodies fall under the Keyblade. After all, Hades was a god, and the Keyblade was able to pound him. Sephiroth was human (or Roxas thought he was), and the Keyblade hurt him. Maybe the Keyblade had more power than Roxas gave it credit for.

"I'll help," Roxas said. "I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do, but I'll do my best."

While the group of people who were on time went to where the demon was, Ash was already there. He'd had the bad luck of running into the demon in question before even getting there for the meeting thing. He would have been late anyway, but now he had an excuse.

The demon was a tiny black bug thing with bright yellow eyes. If it weren't for the Pokedex not recognizing it, Ash would have thought it a dark bug type Pokemon. A mean one, considering it attacked him out of nowhere. A little disappointed, but not deterred, Ash sent Pikachu into battle.

"All right! Thundershock, Pikachu!"

The electric attack seemed to do damage, and the thing disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Teleport?" Ash wondered aloud. He'd never seen anything disappear like that. "Or was it actually a ghost type and not a dark...?"

While he pondered, he didn't realize another, bigger monster appearing behind him.