Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the back of the whale’s throat they could see a demolished wooden ship, which the whale had swallowed as well. It looked like Pinocchio was headed there. Sora ran after him until his foot stepped into a liquid. “Guess we have to swim there.” He shrugged and jumped into the water to go after Pinocchio. Donald and Goofy jumped in with no hesitation as well.
Reluctantly, Kairi dipped her foot into it. “Uh, you sure this is water?” she asked hesitantly, knowing that they were still in the mouth of a whale.
Slightly disgusted, Sora lifted his arm out of the “water” which left a trail of slime behind. “Let’s just assume…!” he said hastily and swam on to get out of the liquid as quickly as possible.
Kairi shrugged her shoulders and came to the conclusion that situations like these were probably part of every adventure. She covered her nose in disgust and finally jumped into the liquid, swimming after Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

They reached the ship and found Pinocchio. Another person was with him, and they were talking animatedly.
“What have you got there, Pinocchio?” an elderly man asked him in a friendly voice.
He had white hair, a white mustache and a cherry-red nose with small glasses on top of it.
“With this, we can get out of here, father!” Pinocchio replied.
Kairi listened closely. The older man was obviously the one who’d built Pinocchio, as he called him father. Nonetheless, she couldn’t figure out how he could make the puppet so alive. Except for the fact that Pinocchio was made of wood, he was no different from other boys his age.
The older man now looked at the object that Pinocchio had brought him.
“Really? With this big block? You think so?” he asked skeptically. After all, he had never seen such material before. However, Sora recognized that the block was made of the same material that their Gummi Ship was made of.
“It’s true,” he said.
Pinocchio and the older man looked over at him.
“So, how did you end up here, Pinocchio?” Sora asked.
“Oh my. So the whale swallowed all of you, too? My goodness.” The man turned to Sora and his friends and gave them a welcoming smile.
“Yeah, looks like it,” Sora replied.
“My name is Gepetto,” he said, introducing himself to them. “I’m Pinocchio’s father. When we got separated, I traveled all over, looking for him. Thank goodness we’re together again.”
Kairi thought about what Gepetto had said. Their situation was grave, but Gepetto didn’t seem to mind much. As long as Pinocchio stayed by his side, he didn’t seem to care much where they were. Obviously, he loved the boy a lot. Kairi could relate well to his way of thinking.
Gepetto took the log that Pinocchio had brought him and carried it to his workbench.
“So, you seem to know Pinocchio quite well. I hope he was a good boy in my absence.”
Goofy rubbed his aching head that Pinocchio had hit, but he didn’t want to call out the little puppet.
“Well, we’ve all had quite a journey,” said Gepetto, putting the log down. Then he looked over to his two pets, who were with him on the ship. One was a little goldfish that stared at Donald with amorous eyes. Donald peeked irritatedly into the fishbowl, and the fish pressed her lips against the glass to kiss him.
Then there was a kitten that snuggled around Kairi’s legs and meowed at her.
Kairi laughed and picked up the kitten to pet it.
“His name is Figaro,” Gepetto said with a smile.
While Kairi was playing with the kitten and Donald was wondering why everyone kept falling in love with him, Sora suddenly noticed that Pinocchio was gone.
“Hey, where’s Pinocchio?” he asked.
“That boy again!” Jiminy said, sighing. “Can’t let him out of your sight for one minute!”
“Pinocchio? Pinocchio!” called Gepetto, but there was no answer.
He concluded that Pinocchio was back on one of his scouting trips to find a way out of the whale. Worried, he asked Sora and his friends to bring Pinocchio back to him, as it could be very dangerous inside a whale. They nodded and then went to look for him.

“Hm, let’s go that way,” Sora said, pointing to a dark cave in Monstro’s tissue.
“So…we’re really going further inside?” Kairi asked, shuddering.
Pinocchio couldn’t have taken any other route though, so they had no choice.
They finally came to an area of Monstro’s innards that looked rather confusing.
Colorful mucous membranes surrounded them and every step felt slippery on the wobbly tissue.
They looked around and saw Pinocchio further back. He was about to wander deeper into Monstro’s innards. The wooden boy kept getting himself into further danger, and Sora lost his patience. They were on an important mission and didn’t have time to babysit Pinnochio.
“What are you doing? Come on, let’s go back,” Sora called to him.
“You know, Gepetto’s awfully worried about you,” Goofy added, appealing to his conscience.
“Pinocchio, stop fooling around! This is no time for games!” Sora stated. He wanted to grab him and haul him back to Gepetto when he suddenly heard a voice.

“But Sora, I thought you liked games.”

Immediately, Sora and Kairi turned around. The voice was unmistakable.
“Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?” Riku asked, teasing him further.
Sora and Kairi couldn’t believe their eyes. Riku really stood before them. But what was he doing in the belly of a whale? Had Monstro swallowed him too?
“Riku…did you come to save us?” Kairi asked hopefully.
“Nah…just playing with Pinocchio,” he replied.
Sora felt mocked by him. Riku certainly hadn’t let himself be devoured by a whale just to play with a wooden puppet. “Quit the games! Are you coming with us now or what?” he asked angrily.
“Maybe,” Riku replied and shrugged. “Catch us and I might change my mind,” he said, taking Pinocchio by the hand and running away with him.
“Really?” Kairi knew that Riku was just teasing them. She was eager to get a hold of him though and then confront him.
“That’s ridiculous. Why is he acting like that?” Sora asked, confused.
Donald and Goofy sighed. It looked like they would have to fight their way through Monstro’s innards to find Riku and Pinocchio.
However, this turned out to be even more difficult than expected. Monstro’s innards all looked the same, and as more and more time passed, they felt as if they were walking in circles.
“I think we haven’t checked this place yet,” Sora said, leading the group through another cave. When they stepped through, they were back at the entrance to Monstro’s mouth.
“Wak?!” Donald shouted, trying to pull his feathers out.
They sighed and eventually went back to Monstro’s chambers.

Kairi was confused. What was Riku up to? And what was his sudden interest in Pinocchio all about? Was he really only here because of him?
Suddenly, Heartless appeared and surrounded Sora and his friends. It seemed like Monstro had eaten them for lunch as well. Either that, or they were drawn here by something else.
The group got ready to fight and followed the Heartless. It seemed like they were luring them deeper into Monstro.
Kairi paused and thought. “If we follow the trail of the Heartless, maybe they’ll lead us to Riku.”
“Huh, why?” Sora asked, looking at her.
Now Kairi felt rather uncomfortable. Obviously, Sora hadn’t noticed how much Riku had changed. She could feel the darkness spreading further in Riku’s heart, but how should she explain that to Sora? To him, Riku was still a role model, without fear or blame. “Well…his heart might be attracting them…” she tried to explain.
Sora noticed that Kairi was having trouble answering his question. But he also knew that something was wrong with Riku.
“Alright, let’s follow them,” Sora said, and they set off.
While Sora fought, he continued to think about what Kairi had said. Could she mean that Riku and the Heartless were in league, like what had happened with Clayton in the jungle? Sora shuddered at the thought. Riku was his best friend and they had always been inseparable. Whenever Sora didn’t know what to do, he would turn to Riku. He was not only his best friend, but also an important pillar in his life. He couldn’t lose him. Maybe Riku thought that Sora wouldn’t need him anymore, now that he had the Keyblade. But deep down in his heart, Sora knew he still needed him.
“Look!” Donald interrupted his thoughts and pointed to Pinocchio, who ran further into Monstro.
“After him!” Sora called, and the group ran after the wooden boy until they finally caught up with him. Pinocchio hurried past Riku and then disappeared into another cave. Finally, they had him. Sora now spoke what was on his mind. “Riku! What’s the matter with you? What are you thinking?!”
“I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora,” he replied in a dark tone. “You only seem interested in running around and showing off with Kairi and that Keyblade these days. I get it, they’re both yours now.”
“W-What’s that supposed to mean?” Sora asked, irritated.
“Gee, jealous much?” Kairi said in a huffy tone. It annoyed her that Riku still treated her like a trophy that he and Sora had to fight over.
“What…” Riku said, perplexed by Kairi’s blunt question. She had hit a sore spot and had called out what Riku would never admit.
Then Kairi walked up to him and grabbed his arm. “Gotcha. Now you have to go with us, like you said you would.” She looked at him with determined eyes.
“I never said—” Riku wanted to talk his way out, but suddenly a scream interrupted them. It was Pinocchio.
They had to postpone their rendezvous for better or worse and quickly rushed to Pinocchio’s aid.