Though immortal, Sora as never lost the charm of boyhood and the stubbornness that comes with it. As a Gatekeeper he knows he has certain responsibilities that any normal person would never suspect of a person his age, but even in knowing his importance, he sometimes wishes for freedom. Since the imprisonment of Xemnas Sora has worn many faces: child, warrior, tradesman, and so on since the years pass much slower for him than ‘humans’. Reapers being immortal, unless one looks deep into his soul, a difficult thing, his age is invisible, but his experience is not. Gatekeeper of the North, Sora only vaguely recalls his ‘normal beginnings’, that of simply being born on a place called Destiny Island and growing up until he was marked as one with a particular ‘affinity’…which was just another way to say, a reaper. That was around the age of fifteen—or what looks like fifteen to the ‘normal’ humans of the world— for Sora. Up until then he had been dear friends with a boy named Riku. However Riku was also marked clearly with an ‘affinity’, pre-destined for Sanzensekai’s protection to be the Gatekeeper of the South. Thus, the friends parted ways. |
Having known that such separations and other similar trials would come before his own happiness, for the good of the world and the world’s second chance, Sora has come to mostly accept his path. However, as with any boy who believes in free-will co-existing with destiny, there are times he wants to turn the other way. As a result, he dreams of flying his own airship, sailing the skies in some materialization of the absolute freedom he seeks. However, for now, he just tinkers around with air-racers, strange flying contraptions that quit on him at the most inconvenient of moments. However, protecting the North is for all purposes, the center of his thoughts, whether he means for it to be, or not. |
Sora often thinks about the other gatekeepers, and wishes to see them again because time does strange things, especially when one is immortal. Normal people change hundreds, maybe thousands of times before death, and he finds himself wondering how much a person might change if a person never dies. The disquiet that has settled around Sanzensekai with talk of uprising amongst those left of Xemnas’ followers disturbs Sora surprisingly little, for it is not yet a reality. With a firm belief they can protect this land of will from the consuming darkness, Sora feels aware but not worried...yet. Some of this may have to do with his preoccupation with distancing himself from his duties...or destiny, or responsibility, whichever way one wants to see it, as a reaper. Some of it may have to do with the fact that though his natural behavior attracts kind people, he wishes sometimes to see others like himself again...someone who might understand. For though there seems to be no written contract by the Creator or otherwise as to whether or not he can tell a normal human who he is, Sora doubts it would be wise. |
Sometimes he has dreams of those like him… faint memories that are so long in the past that they almost seem unreal. A flash of flame, black cloaked figures...aquamarine eyes…amused and uncertain laughter that he seems to remember having shared with all the reapers in their last encounter, the last time they all saw each other.
He also believes that heartless are not locked behind a closed door...that there must be some way to help them, to find redemption. A second chance for heartless is one of Sora's less vocal but no less ardent searches...and hopes. His philosophy, though he wouldn't call it that, is: they had a heart once, didn't they? |