(Dan’s P.O.V)
So this is my test?
When I woke up, I found myself on a street back in our original world. A very familiar street actually, but everything was black and white.
So this is where my Mark of Mastery Exam is supposed to take place? What am I supposed to do here?
From what I’ve observed, this place must be an illusion of my old world. That much is obvious. But how is this place supposed to help me face my “Inner Darkness?” Or so the Master said.
*Sigh*
Well I guess I’ll just keep walking along until something shows up. As I was walking along the street, I found myself passing the river channel I always went to. It was always my favorite place to go to when I couldn’t handle being around my family.
Now don’t get me wrong. I do love my family, but when you have older sisters like mine you couldn’t help but feel like an outcast. Even in my own family.
When I passed the channel, what caught my eye was a pile of crumpled up papers at the bottom. When I went down to uncrumple them, I saw that they were my old drawings.
Yeah, I remember now. I always came here to draw, where I could be myself and not who I acted like to the public eye.
Before I could go deeper into my thoughts, I saw an Unversed slither away. So I stuffed the drawing in my shirt pocket and I chased it. While I was chasing it, it rounded a corner disappearing from my sights. When I rounded the corner, I found myself in front of the gates of my old middle school.
What am I doing here? Is this part of the exam?
*Poke.*
Something pointy suddenly poked the side of my head. On the ground next to me was a paper airplane. I pick it up and unfolded it, it was one of my test back in middle school.
But the only thing on it was my name and a big zero on it. Back then I purposely didn’t answer any questions to see how the teachers would react to their “Star” student.
I remember those days, before I met my friends.
I came from a relatively normal family, except for the fact that my sisters were geniuses. They were very intelligent for their age, and were very famous because of it. Winning a noble prize will do that for you. They got all sorts of praise, but mostly from my parents who completely adore them. All they ever talked about was them, leaving me in their shadow.
My parents rarely talked to me about anything, except if it was about what my sisters did. It made me so mad. They all got mother and father's affection, and it was a constant reminder that I would never be like them.
But that didn’t stop me from trying to be just like them. Everyday in middle school I studied my ass off to get the perfect grades. Although, this caused me to be quite anti-social when I had no other desire than to be noticed by my parents.
Even then it didn’t work. Nothing I ever did was good enough to get a word of encouragement or a ‘good job buddy!’ They just kept fawning over my sisters and their continuous chain of accomplishments. They weren’t even that much older than me! Only four years apart!
I got congratulated by teachers and some other students, but their words didn’t matter to me. Instead, I put on an arrogant and cocky persona. There was something about making myself look superior over others that lessened the pain of being ignored, but I still felt the pain.
“What am I supposed to do here? Why show me all of this?” I muttered to myself.
“I’m disappointed little bro, I thought you wanted to be as smart as us.”
“If you can’t figure out something as simple as this, then you’ll never get mom and dad to notice you.”
I look forward, to see my two older sisters standing in front of me. Corina and Monica, or Coco and Momo as they told everyone to call them. They were twins, same red hair like I had, same blue eyes, they even wore similar sun dresses, except Coco’s was red with white outlines and Momo’s was white with red outlines.
“What are you two doing here?”
“We’re here to make sure you keep up with your studies!” Coco said.
“And what better way to do that then being the ones that give you the test?” Momo finished.
“Come on out everyone!” They shouted simultaneously. In an instant, a hoard of Unversed appeared out of the shadows.
“What is this?” Now I know I had some problems with my sisters, but I’m sure they weren’t ones to intentionally hurt someone, or summon the Unversed. These must be illusions made for the Exam.
“This is your test. Now you better get a perfect score.” “Or else you may never be like us.” They said.
No time to question it. I summon my… what is this?! A default Starlight? Where’s Anguis?!
“Are you looking for this?” Coco said holding Anguis. “You’ll get it back after the test. Only of you pass through.”
Tsk! I’ll just have to make due. It was a little awkward at first, getting used to a new keyblade, but with my skills it was simple to dispatch of the Unversed grunts. It was a bit difficult without magic, but I was confident in my fighting skills. When the last Unversed fell, I heard soft clapping from my sisters.
“Good job little bro!” “You did great!” They said, but I heard a bit of condensation in their voices.
“Was that it? If that was your test then I can’t see why Mom and Dad praised you so much.” I sneered.
“Ooh! Snappy today aren’t we?” Momo said.
“But don’t worry, we have something harder for you.” Coco said as she held up Anguis.
“You’ll have to face us now!” They both said.
Coco charged at me, and raised Anguis ready to strike.
I raised Starlight ready to block her attack, but when she got close Anguis disappeared. I didn’t even have time to be confused when Momo came charging in with Anguis and striking my side.
“You should have seen that coming!” “Yeah, we would have!” They said, charging at me once again.
As the fight waged on I couldn’t keep up with either of them. They kept changing up with their tactics by switching who had the keyblade nest, I couldn’t figure out a strategy to go against them.
After many strikes from my own Keyblade, I was knocked onto the ground. Struggling to get up from the damage.
“Pitty.” Coco said as they both stood across from me. “I thought you would have done better.”
“Yeah, You are our brother aren’t you?” Momo said. “You should have put more effort into studying than those stupid doodles you do. Them maybe you would have been recognized by mom and dad. You’ll always just be in our shadow.”
… Their right. I’m just a nobody, an outcast to all and forever to be in their shadow. No wonder Mom and Dad never recognized me, I have nothing to show.
Suddenly, the drawing from earlier fell out of my pocket. It was a picture I drew of the river.
Wait, now I remember, this was the picture I was drawing that day, the day I met them.
(Flashback Begins)
The younger me sat on the river bank, drawing to his heart's content. I hated studying so hard, but I convinced myself that it was what I needed to do to get my parents attention. This was the only time where I could be myself.
But today I was extra frustrated. I went to the river out of instinct, but my mind went to a darker place. I questioned why I was even drawing, because I convinced myself that it wasn’t going to help me.
I got so frustrated, I was about to throw my sketch into the river.
“Hey Dan!” I heard someone yell. I quickly hide the crumpled up sketch behind my back as I turned around.
It was Lan, Crow, Kira, and Jenny. I only slightly knew them from school, but I acted superior to them like everyone else.
“What do you idiots want?” Yeah I was a little asshole back then.”
“What’s with the attitude? We just came to say hi.” Jenny said irritated.
Just then, someone swiped the piece of paper from my hand.
“What’s this?” It was Kira.
“Hey!” I tried to get it back but she was too quick.
She unraveled the paper and saw the sketch. “Wow! It’s so pretty!” The others gathered around the drawing, much to my frustration.
“Wow, you drew this?” Crow asked.
“Who knew the smartest kid in school could draw so good.” Jenny said.
“Shut up!” I shouted as I grab the picture, “It’s nothing. I was gonna throw it away anyways.”
“What? But it’s so pretty, why would you want to throw it away?” Kira asked.
“It’s because it’s useless. Only my grades matter. It’s not like this stupid drawing is going to get me recognized.”
“But we like it.” Lan said. “If we like it, then why wouldn’t anyone else recognize it?”
I don’t know what came over me, but I felt like I could tell these four kids, that I haven’t even talk to before, anything.
I began a rant about my home life, my parents, my sister, everything. Instead of laughing like I thought they would, they looked at me understandingly.
Lan put his hand on my shoulder. “So the smart, know-it-all Dan. That’s not the real you?” I shook my head. “Then why don’t you start being the real you?” I looked at him confused.
Crow held up the picture. “We saw you drawing, before you were about to toss it, and you looked really happy. Not like you look when you were at school.”
“Yeah, I like drawing Dan better than know-it-all Dan. He seems cool.” Jenny said.
“And we love your drawing! I’m sure other people will like it too!” Kira cheered.
Lan smiled, “You don’t have to be like your sisters to be recognized. We like you for who you really are. And if your parents don’t see it screw them, cause they don’t see the awesome guy you really are!”
That was the day I finally felt accepted. I didn’t feel the need to act superior to them, cause they like the true me.
(Flashback End)
I struggled, but I finally got to my feet.
“You’re right. I will never be like you.” They looked at me confused. “But I never really had to. You say that I’m forever in your shadow, well you’re wrong. I will step out of your shadow, so I can shine brighter on my own!” Dan’s Starlight started to glow. “I’m not just your little brother! I an Dan Foreteller. I am Invi, bearer of the Snake mask! I am me, and I will make the world recognize me as I truly am!”
Anguis disappeared from the twins grasp and reappeared back into my hand as his Foreteller robes formed around me.
“This is the true me! The me that will defeat you, and pass this exam!”
I raised Anguis high into the air as ice crystals started to form around it.
“Stardust Sanctuary!”
Soon the whole area was covered in a think blizzard dome. The twins looked around, but they could barely see in front of them. Then out of the blizzard, I appeared and swiftly struck both of them. Then quickly retreated back into the blizzard. This pattern continued for six more strikes, until the dome dissipated. Only to reveal me high up in the air with three large ice spikes in front of me. I sent the ice spikes flying towards the twins, kicking up dust that covered the area.
When the dust settled, the twins were in the center. On their knees and breathing heavily in exhaustion. I walked up in front of them.
“I may have always blamed you both for hogging all of mom and dad's attention. But you’re still my sisters, and I love you.”
What I didn’t expect was the twins suddenly shedding tears, and rushing to hug me.
“Hm, I never expected this kind of reaction from illusions.” I said, then both twins pulled on my cheeks.
“Hey! We aren’t illusions!” Coco said.
“Yeah! We’re the real deal!” Momo said.
“What?” I said in shock. “Then how are you here? And how could you fight so well?”
“God reached out to us, to help you with this exam of yours.” Coco said.
“Plus, we are pretty much dreaming back on Earth. We’re only here in spirit, so we only thought about fighting like that.” Momo said
The both of them gained sad looks.
“We’re sorry Dan.” They both said and bowed their heads in shame.
“We never knew you felt this way.” Coco said
“Or how mom and dad were treating you. If only we knew sooner we could have done something.” Momo said
They both hugged me softly, and I returned their hug.
“We love you Dan… Never forget that.”
We all cry together, and savored the time we spent together. That was until their bodies started to fizzle out.
“Looks like it’s time for us to go.” Momo said.
“This is goodbye.” Coco said wiping her tears away.
“I will never forget you two. Never.” I said solemnly. The moment was sad, until they both gained mischievous grins.
“Oh, and just date that Rainbow girl already!” Coco said. My face was immediately covered in blush. I was about to say something until Momo interrupted.
“God also showed us how you were doing in this new world of yours. It’s so cute how you two always compete against each other, even though you’re both obviously into each other.” She laughed.
“I-it’s not like that!” I shouted. “Just… Just disappear already!”
“Bye!” They both said as they finally disappear.
“Hah~ those two.” I smiled. Then a door suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“I guess that’s my cue to leave.”
With that said, I walk through the door.