Fanfic / Colosseum of the Heart

After sacrificing everything to save Kairi, Sora finds himself in a world of strange and powerful creatures. Enter Ash Ketchum, a young man lost in a different sense, having become Champion of Alola and faced with an uncertain future. To save a land shrouded in darkness and shadow, they and their friends must re-examine what, or who, truly drives them.

Colosseum of the Heart is an ongoing Crossover fanfic between Kingdom Hearts and Pokémon: The Series, also including settings and characters from Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness. The story is written by Ikell and published on Archive of Our Own, as well as Fanfiction Dot Net.

Colosseum of the Heart provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: In this version, Eagun is an Aura Guardian capable of Ki Attack and also has a Lucario.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: As usual, the World Order prevents Sora from telling his new friends about coming from another world until he has no other choice, in the wake of the Heartless attack on Pyrite Town. Kairi, Riku and Jiminy intended to follow this as well, but Kairi's Ralts quickly learns the truth using telepathy and blabs it to Riku's Larvitar. They later come clean to Lily to some extent, revealing they have a history with the Heartless, and to Michael after he sees them with their Keyblades.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: As in canon, Jovi is about as exasperating to Michael as everyone else, though she does prove to be unexpectedly effective as a teacher to Kairi and Riku.
• Aura Vision: Much like Rui in Colosseum, Sora has the ability to identify Shadow Pokémon by sight.
• Badass Boast: After Ash humiliates Nover and takes his Metang.
  Ash: My name is Ash Ketchum. I've come to rescue Shadow Pokémon from trainers who don't appreciate their Pokémon or care about the pain they put them through. Trainers who know only greed. Trainers who seek power without caring who they use or step on to get it. Trainers like you.
• Battle Couple: Ash and Serena are heading this way, especially after their double battle in the Phenac City tournament.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: As in Colosseum, the morality of "snagging" Shadow Pokémon is explored, with Ash and Serena being worried about becoming no better than Team Rocket but quickly deciding that Cipher needs to be stopped.
• Broad Strokes:
  • In the Pokémon world, the story picks up a few years after Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon and ignores Pokémon Journeys: The Series, with Ash and Serena aged up to 18.
  • The story begins just prior to the events of Gale of Darkness, with Kairi and Riku entering the region and meeting Michael around the time of Professor Krane's kidnapping), but the Aura reader introduced in that game is removed to give Sora's Aura Vision a role in Ash's group.
  • On the other side, the events of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory are ignored, along with the months that Kairi spent asleep as part of their search for Sora, so Kairi starts training with Aqua a lot sooner.
• Brutal Honesty: Bonnie has a tendency toward this when criticising Orre for being far behind the rest of the world, even when surrounded by locals such as at Phenac Stadium. While some of them are noticeably irritated by her statements, others seem to treat it as Jerkass Has a Point.
• Calling Your Attacks: The story makes use of the fact that both franchises do it, with Sora having to remember to call out Pokémon attacks rather than his own spells: ""Rufflet, Aer - I mean, Tailwind!" It also comes up when Serena calls out "Fire!" to order a coordinated attack on a Defender, only to accidentally cast Fire with the Magus Staff she found earlier, which hits the Defender.
• Canon Name: The protagonists of Colosseum and Gale of Darkness both go by combinations of their English and Japanese canon names: Wes Leo and Michael Ryuto respectively.
• Combat Commentator:
  • Played for laughs with The Announcer of a tournament in Phenac City, who's remarkably unenthusiastic about commentating on the battles. Brock suggests that he must be new and filling in for someone else, while Bonnie says that "It's like they found some random guy off the street and stuck him up in the announcer booth!" He does improve slightly in the final match (Ash and Serena vs Brock and Bonnie), thanks to the excitement of it.
  • In Chapter 18, Michael provides commentary for Kairi and Riku while watching a recording of an attack on the Cipher facility, identifying Ash and Serena by name (and noting that Bonnie looks familiar).
• Confused Bystander Interview: Following the Heartless attack on Pyrite Town, Fabe appears on the local news. While obviously unaware of the full story - he believes it was an attack by some kind of Shadow Pokémon, - he does identify Ash by name, revealing him as a snagger, causing Ash to regret giving his name at the Duel Square.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In Chapter 18, the security footage of a raid on a Cipher facility reveals a fairly one-sided fight between Ash's group and six Cipher goons.
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • Bonnie, as always, tends to react with "SO CUTE!" to new Pokemon.
  • Kairi is prone to this around Pokemon, in particular a Rockruff she meets in Pyrite Town and the Larvitar and Ralts she and Riku find in the S.S. Libra. "At this point she was convinced that nearly every single Pokemon in existence was incredibly cute and must be protected at all costs." For his part, Larvitar doesn't appreciate it.
• Delayed Reaction:
  • While gossiping with Sora about Ash and Serena, Bonnie compares their Childhood Friend Romance to him and Kairi. Sora agrees before taking a moment to realise they're suddenly talking about him. As the narration puts it, "All that was missing was the cliché sound of a record scratching."
  • In Chapter 15, after Sora, comparing this world to his own, offhandedly comments "Yeah, sure, I can use magic, but anyone can do that!" It takes Serena a minute to notice the implications of that (that she might be able to learn to use it using the magic staff she found earlier), but before she can ask him about it, she gets distracted by their arrival in Agate Village and the subject is dropped. It's not until the following chapter that she uses her staff for the first time.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors:
  • Discussed by Sora, who struggles to get his head around it while watching a battle:
  Sora: Wait, if steel is weak to fighting, but psychic is strong against it, does that mean Toxicroak has an advantage against Metang or not? Light, types are hard. How do you guys do it?
  Pikachu: Ka-pi-pi.
  Sora: ...That was not helpful.
  • Kairi and Riku are slightly quicker to get a handle on it with help from Jovi and Michael. At one point Riku questions the logic behind Ice not being super effective against Water and Michael can't dispute his reasoning: "Every Pokémon battle I've ever watched that involved Ice types had them freezing any nearby water to give them an edge in battle."
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Serena's lingering crush on Ash is obvious to Bonnie, May and Dawn, who all know immediately that she's going to accept the offer to join him in Orre. Sora picks up on it quickly as well.
  • Ash and friends immediately figure out Sora's crush on Kairi just from how he talks about her.
• Exact Words: When Brock asks Sora if he can tell them where he's from and how he got here, Sora answers, "I'm not quite sure." Not technically a lie, since he doesn't know anything about the Void Between the Worlds he was in before, or how much he can tell them without breaking the World Order. Brock takes this to mean he has amnesia, and Sora doesn't correct him until he absolutely has to.
• Five Stages of Grief: Referenced in the narration (as "seven stages of grief") when Kairi feels like she's going through half of them at once since she lost Sora. "Shock and disbelief. Guilt. Anger. Depression. All were viciously, hideously mixed and intertwined with each other into a swirling vortex of hopelessness."
• Global Currency: Sora's leftover munny from his own adventures has been converted into Poké since he arrived in Orre. He admits to his friends that he has no idea how it works.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: The author openly likes this, with "Mareepish" being used in place of "Sheepish" a few times.
• Hustler: When Ash first visits the Duel Square, he poses as a naive rookie to bait Nover into wagering his Shadow Pokémon Metang, before surprising him with Charizard.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Played with when Ash approaches Eagun for help with learning to use Aura. Eagun asks him if he may be feeling envy over Sora's abilities and Serena's growing magic. Ash admits to this, but maintains that it's more an issue of him feeling helpless against the Heartless. Eagun approves of his attitude and agrees to train him.
  Ash: I want to fight because I don't want to be a burden anymore. The second time we fought the Heartless, I had to run and hide while Sora and our Pokémon protected us. I hated it. I want to learn Aura so I can be the one protecting the others. I know I'll probably never be the warrior Sora is, and that's okay. But I don't want to be the one he – and Serena now, I guess – have to worry about protecting. I refuse to sit and hide while our world is under attack. I want to help.
• Immediate Sequel: From Sora's perspective, the story picks up immediately after he disappeared from Kairi's sight at the end of Kingdom Hearts III, though a month has passed for Kairi and others the first time we see them.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Serena's eventual reaction to Sora and Bonnie gossiping about her and Ash from the backseat of the jeep.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In Chapter 10, Sora tells his new friends everything about the Heartless, Xehanort, etc, (complete with a Let Me Get This Straight... from Brock). In turn, Ash tells Sora, Serena and Bonnie about his own world-saving adventures and why he was called the Chosen One.
  • In Chapter 18, Kairi reveals to Lily that she and Riku have a history with the Heartless, to persuade her to let them go after Professor Krane, though doesn't reveal more than that yet. They later have to reveal more to Michael, after he follows them on their rescue mission and sees them using their Keyblades.
• Justified Criminal: Discussed when the group learns Wes's backstory from Rui's grandmother. It's noted that many become criminals just to survive in Orre, since the region lacks resources and opportunities in addition to Pokémon.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Sora explains how fighting Heartless has made him and his friends get stronger, Bonnie compares it to "experience points in a game".
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Ash notes that most of the crime syndicates he's faced in the past had standards about attacking trainers directly. By Chapter 16, it becomes apparent that Cipher does not: "Whatever dark and eldritch deal they made to employ the Heartless in their machinations was proof enough of that."
• Limit Break: Namechecked when Sora's fight with a Guard Armor leads him to create a Limit Move with Ash and Pikachu, "Ten Million Volt Thunderstorm".
• Magic Staff: Serena finds a Magus Staff during a Heartless attack at Phenac Stadium, Sora recognising it as similar to the ones Donald uses.
• Mathematician's Answer:
  • Kairi asks her new Pokemon whether "Ralts" is her name or her species. She answers, "Yes!", before translating that Riku's Larvitar says yes too. "About being called Larvitar, that is. It'd be silly if he was called Ralts."
  • This exchange, about Ash's Shadow Metang:
  Bonnie: Ash, it's a battle junkie. Every fight you throw it into, it's like a rampaging Tauros.
  Ash: Hey, they're not that bad!
  Serena: Metang or Tauros?
  Ash: Yes.
• Missed Him by That Much: Shows up repeatedly, the author comparing it to the original game and how long it took for Sora to meet Donald and Goofy in Traverse Town:
  • In Chapter 12 when Kairi and Riku arrive in Pyrite Town not long after Sora and Ash's group left.
  • Chapter 14 has Michael, Kairi and Riku arrive at Professor Krane's lab not long after an attack by Cipher and the Heartless, which also destroyed their chance of accessing his contact information for Sora and Ash.
  • Similarly, Chapter 18 has Michael, Kairi and Riku show up at a Cipher facility shortly after a raid by what turns out to have been Ash and Sora's group, though the exact outcome of their rescue attempt remains to be seen.
• Money Spider: When Sora explains how the Heartless leave behind munny and other useful items, the group suddenly realise that they had picked up a fair bit of it (in their bank accounts, that is) from the previous day's attack without even noticing.
• Not Helping Your Case: Immediately following the exchange under Rhetorical Question Blunder, Riku asks Michael if the gang that Ash Ketchum fought were anything like Cipher. Michael snorts and says that Cipher would have beaten Team Rocket easily. It takes him a moment to realise his mistake.
• Oblivious to Love: Downplayed with Ash, who has matured enough to learn something about romance and has realised in retrospect that Serena had feelings for him during their Kalos journey. However, he has yet to figure out that she still does, unlike the rest of their friends.
• Oh, My Gods!: Ash and Serena use Arceus this way a few times. Sora uses "Light" in the same context.
• Outside-Context Problem: Sora has no idea what Pokémon are (much to Ash and everyone else's bafflement). In turn, Ash and his friends have no idea what The Heartless are when they show up. Illustrated both ways in Chapter 11, with Sora having to remember to call out Pokémon attacks rather than his own spells during his first battle with Rufflet, while a news report on the Heartless attack in Pyrite Town can only assume they were some kind of Shadow Pokémon (Fabe refers to Shadows as Sableye, Soldiers as Bisharp and Large Bodies as Snorlax). In addition, Ash and the other trainers are out of their depth in a fight against a Guard Armor, as they've almost never had to deal with an enemy attacking them directly.
• Precocious Crush: Implied when Michael chooses to stick close to Kairi when they explore the ruined Cipher facility. Everyone reacts to this with barely concealed amusement.
• Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Most of the conversations between Larvitar and Ralts, though often the latter is also translating for Kairi and Riku.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: In Chapter 18, Kairi tries to dissuade Michael from going after Cipher to rescue Professor Krane, pointing out that he's eleven. Michael naturally points out that most trainers leave home at his age. "Ash Ketchum started when he was ten!" When Kairi asks if Ash decided to pick a fight with a criminal organization, Michael retorts that Team Rocket actually kept picking fights with him, blindsiding her and Riku.
• Right Way/Wrong Way Pair: Bonnie shows Sora a video of one of Ash's Alola League battles to show how the announcers are supposed to hype the crowd up, contrasting him with the terrible commentator they're listening to in Phenac City.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Sora's reaction when Bonnie starts teasingly asking him about his obvious crush on Kairi. Note that this takes place after they shared a Paopu Fruit in Kingdom Hearts III, the closest thing they've had to a Relationship Upgrade in canon.
• Sherlock Scan: Michael impresses Kairi and Riku with his analysis of the aftermath of a battle.
• Shipper on Deck: Sora for Ash/Serena, Serena for Sora/Kairi (even without having met the latter), and Bonnie for both pairings. Chapter 10 sees Sora gossiping with Bonnie about how long Ash and Serena will take to get together, much to Serena's embarrassment and Ash's initial confusion (which also quickly turns into embarrassment), before Bonnie pivots the conversation onto him and Kairi.
• Skewed Priorities: Following Sora's arrival in Gateon Port, Serena almost seems less confused by him falling out of the sky than by his outfit, in particular his massively oversized shoes.
• Sore Loser: After Sora and Serena defeat Vant and Serena snags his Shadow Toxel, he reacts like a Manchild, claiming he was just going to get rid of Toxel anyway.
• Starter Mon:
  • Sora gets his in Chapter 7, a wild Rufflet who he captures with help from Ash's Corphish.
  • In Chapter 12, Riku and Kairi find two Pokéballs in the wreckage of the S.S. Libra, later opening them up to find a Larvitar and a Ralts. From what Ralts tells them (telepathically), the two didn't have trainers before.
• Sweat Drop: Sora's reaction to Zook describing himself as "the coolest, baddest, and most happening guy around!"
• Tagalong Chronicler: As always, Jiminy Cricket, whose journal helps Sora explain his backstory to Ash and friends, and who later accompanies Kairi and Riku on their rescue mission.
• Tagalong Kid: Michael secretly follows Kairi and Riku on their mission to rescue Professor Krane.
• Tempting Fate: In Chapter 11, when a Guard Armor drops out of the sky nearby, Sora starts to express confidence that they can take it easily, only to be interrupted by several dozen Soldier Heartless showing up as well, followed by a second Guard Armor.
  Sora: I stand corrected.
• There's No Kill like Overkill: In Chapter 11, Sora, Ash and Pikachu's limit break, used to defeat two Guard Armors and a bunch of Soldier Heartless. Brock and Serena both consider it overkill, while the author agrees but considers it both fun to write and Worth It.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: At first the story only occasionally cuts away to Kairi and Riku preparing to go after Sora, but starting with their arrival in Chapter 12, it alternates between Sora and Ash's group and Kairi, Riku and Michael.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Defied for once when Ansem and Yen Sid advise Donald and Goofy against traveling to Orre, pointing out that they'll attract too much attention and may even be mistaken for Pokémon.
• Victory Is Boring: Ash has been struggling with this feeling since he became the Champion of Alola.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 9: In the Land of Departure, Kairi gets a call from Xion saying that they've found Sora. In Pyrite Town, the heroes visit Fateen's Fortune Telling, where Fateen not only recognises Ash as The Chosen One but identifies Sora as a Guardian of Light, warning him that darkness is encroaching on the world. Before Sora can explain any of this to the group, the Heartless make an appearance nearby and Sora is forced to break his cover.
  • Chapter 16: Cipher launches a Heartless attack on Agate Village. The heroes are able to fight them off, but Dakim succeeds in destroying the Relic Stone, their best option for purifying Shadow Pokémon. During the battle, Sora's Rufflet evolves into Braviary and Sora creates a new Keyblade from one of his feathers, named Brave Bird. Elsewhere, Serena uses her magic staff for the first time.
• Wham Line: In Chapter 8, Greevil's unidentified ally warns him that there's a Keyblade user somewhere in this world (obviously the reader already knows this, but not the fact that said ally knew anything about Keyblades, or that Greevil knew enough to not need further information).
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: One week in Orre equals about four months in the Land of Departure or Twilight Town.

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