KH Keyblade Masters vs Xemnas

"This is it, Xemnas!" shouted Sora.

"It's the end of the road!" yelled Kairi.

"For you, and only you!" added Riku.

"You'll pay for your atrocities!" shouted Roxas.

"You'll pay double!" added Xion.

"Looking forward to this..." Axel said with a smirk.

Xemnas narrowed his eyes. "Then let this abandoned street be...our last battlefield."

Man. Still get chills reading that part.

Anyways, today is a special one for me, because it was on this day, four years ago, the grand finale of Keyblade Masters first debuted online. A year and a half of pouring my heart, soul, and love into a story that took my favorite Kingdom Hearts characters on their magnificent journey. It may have been years since then, but I still remember how proud I was that I had seen this story through to completion. I remember how all the readers that followed along congratulated me on a solid finale, telling me how great my fanfiction had been. Even to this day, I still get messages saying that "such-and-such has added KH: The Keyblade Masters to their favorites" or "John Q. Public has added you to their deviantWATCH". I will never forget the friends I made throughout the journey, whether they were regular readers who waited patiently for updates or people who were looking around for new fanfiction to read and stumbled upon my humble little corner of the internet.

I still go back and reread Keyblade Masters. I've always loved rereading works of fiction, picking up on little details that I never noticed before. It's quite interesting going back and rereading what you've already written, how you look back and imagine a younger you, fingers flying across the keyboard as you tell the story you were so eager to share with the world.

In fairness, Keyblade Masters is far from perfect. There's the occasional misspelling I never corrected, the infrequent improper usage of grammar, the occasional oddly-phrased description, and more than a few parts that make me roll my eyes and wonder why I ever thought that was a good idea. There's always the temptation to go back and correct them, but I never do. Maybe part of me wants to keep them for the same reason your parents might pin your crayon scribbling to the fridge; it records how I've matured and grown as a writer, a reader, and a creative thinker. (Or maybe I'm just lazy. Either one works. )

Whether you're relatively new or an old friend: thank you for reading Keyblade Masters. Thank you for telling me what you thought, even if all you did was favorite it or watch me. And never stop reading. Never stop growing. Never stop dreaming.

So here's a little MMD picture to commemorate this occasion. It depicts one of my favorite scenes from Keyblade Masters: all six Keyblade Masters, tired and worn out from earlier battles, coming together to confront Xemnas once and for all. (This scene and the excerpt come from Chapter 111 of Keyblade Masters, which incidentally is also the longest chapter of the original run. Coincidence? Hmmm...) I think the scene speaks for itself what's about to go down. Tried as I might, I could not find a proper Armored Xemnas model, so I just decided to go for what would have been the "money shot" and put all six Keyblade Masters in frame, ready to save their universe.

Anyways, I suppose I should put some credits in here.
Program: MikuMikuDance
Armored KH Models: roxasxiiiaxelviii.deviantart.c…
The World That Never Was Stage: zido.deviantart.com/
Keyblade Models: valforwing.deviantart.com/