Chapter 1 – The Beginning

It was a mild summers evening in Radiant Garden. It was around 9pm but it was still light, the sky was full of Keiko's favourite colours - shades of red, orange and yellow. She had always liked these colours, she thought of them as a symbol of fiery passion and excitement, and even danger... Well, there's nothing wrong with a bit of danger now and then is there? This is the usual motto of Keiko, she didn't care about if something was dangerous or risky or if it could have serious consequences, she lived for fun.
After staring out of her circular window for at least 15 minutes, Keiko walked into her home alone, it wasn't big or grand, and it was quite small, with a living area/kitchen, two bedrooms and a small bathroom. She kicked off her trainers and he walked up the small stair case, missing the middle creaky step like she always did and pushed open the door to her petite bedroom. She then slumped down onto a chair which sat in front of her dressing table and looked at her reflection in the mirror, staring into her own deep brown eyes. Her eyes were then drawn to a number of photo frames, one of which held a picture of her brother, her brother had the same deep brown eyes as her, and they stared right back at her, like they were staring into her soul. Her eyes filled up with tears and her chest felt like it was tightening. She quickly looked away to distract her attention - she hated to cry. She had lost her brother to the heartless not long ago, he was only trying to protect his home town. Whenever Keiko thought of this, it pulled on her heart and made her feel queasy, it hurt inside, it felt like someone had ripped her heart straight out. She hated being at home, because she was alone, alone with her thoughts.
She took the picture frame off her dressing table and looked at her brother again, although tears were still welling up in her eyes, she was filled with rage and anger.
"I hate those fucking heartless" she thought to herself.
She slammed down the frame onto the dressing table, and jumped on her bed and buried her face into a pillow, she screamed in anger into the pillow. But, no matter how hard she tried, she cried. She sobbed into the pillow, the sound of her crying was the same sound as someone crying in intense, unbearable pain. That's pretty much how she felt too.
Her phone buzzed in her grey hoody pocket, it continued to vibrate, she knew this meant a call. She reluctantly took the phone from her pocket and looked at the screen, the name read 'Miya', she was relieved, it was her best friend, the one person who didn't ask annoying questions like 'what's wrong?' and 'why are you crying?' continuously until she would finally crack and spill everything. No, Miya knew, she knew when to ask questions and when to just leave it. This is why Miya is her best friend. She cleared her throat and then answered.
"Hey babeh what's up?" Miya shouted down the phone.
Miya was always a very loud lady. This probably made her not a lady at all.
"Hey, nothing. What's going on wit chu?" Keiko replied. Her and Miya often spoke to each other in a strange way, using words like 'babeh' 'wit' and 'chu'.
"Well one was just curious as to whether you would like to attend a wonderful get together" Miya asked in a very convincing posh accent.
"One would be honoured to!" Keiko answered in the best possible posh accent she could conjure.
"Great! Meet us in half an hour at Redd's place! See you there" and Miya ended the call.
For a moment, Keiko had forgotten her worries and thoughts, but then they came back, and she felt sick. She tried to distract her thoughts by going over to the mirror.
"Wow I look like a piece of shit" she sighed.
All her mascara and eyeliner had run down her face, a reminder to her and an instant giveaway to everyone else of crying. She took a make-up wipe and began to wipe it off. She hated her eyes without make up, she didn't look enticing or alluring, she looked boring and plain. Many people disagreed with this, saying she looked absolutely fine. But, she would never listen. She liked to look suspicious and naughty, something her brother would complain about daily.
"You know, you don't actually need to look like such a tramp." He would say laughing. He had a blunt sense of humour. But, so did Keiko, so she didn't mind. She would just laugh and punch him as hard as she could, and he would act like it hurt terribly.
Keiko giggled to herself at this thought as she re-applied her eyeliner and added flicks at the corner of each eye. Although she had long eyelashes, she still liked to make them longer; she swiftly put the mascara on her top lashes. It was like she was transformed, from a delicate crying girl into someone naughty and mischievous. She was happy this way, she didn't let anyone know the soft side of her, nor did she want to.
Since it was only a meet up and Redd's house, she decided not to dress up and to stay in the same outfit. She stood up and walked over to the other side of the room where there was another mirror, this one was full length. She decided to take off her hoody, it was too hot. She inspected the playsuit she was wearing; she turned around to look how short it was at the back.
"Not short enough!"
She pulled it up further to reveal more of her legs, she was careful not to show her bum cheeks. Well, she wanted to leave something for the imagination.
Redd was another one of Keiko's friends, he had short red hair and hazel eyes. He was extremely laid back and relaxed; he lived by the rule of 'I'll do it tomorrow'. Even though he never did anything and was the laziest boy within a million worlds, everything always worked out for him. Nothing ever really went wrong for him.
She left the house and set off for Redd's, it was a little darker now but the cobbled streets were lit by lanterns hanging outside people's doorways and there were a few ornate street lamps on corners. There hadn't been any heartless seen for a while, she didn't trust the newspapers though. She didn't trust them at all. She knew the heartless were still around; they were hiding, or waiting... But what for?
She kept walking, Redd's house was on the edge of town, she was tempted to free run over the top of the roofs of the houses. She thought about it for a minute and decided against it, she had only discovered this skill a week ago, and she could've sworn it wasn't there before. However, she was very skilled at it. She decided against it because she was afraid of being caught. Something she wasn't usually afraid of. She felt as though she shouldn't use it, she didn't want to. She knew what happened to people who discovered strange powers and skills; they were roped into big ideas of fighting against the darkness and uniting as a team. Both things that she wasn't really interested in - especially not the team part.
She turned right and strolled down a street with very few lights. The street seemed unfamiliar to her. All the houses were taller than the street Redd lived on. They also appeared more sinister and intimidating.
"Oh shit...I've gone the wrong way."
Without a second thought she turned on her heel was about to head back up the street. Suddenly, 4 heartless appeared, she had read her brother's journal (containing everything there is to know about heartless and other enemies) about a thousand times testing him on different heartless and their weaknesses before he went out to battle them. She instantly recognised the two closest, they were two shadows; these were really common in Hollow Bastion. She look at the three behind, she racked her brains for the names of them. Then It came to her, the three behind were Soldiers, they weren't too strong to take. But even so, they were too strong for a weapon-less girl alone. She had no brother to defend her, and nobody else around to help either. She took a few steps back from the approaching heartless. She stared them directly in their yellow toxic eyes, they kept approaching her, not making an attack and she kept taking steps backwards. That was until she felt her back hit an icy cold stone wall - she was trapped.
The heartless cornered her, she was surrounded, and she didn't know what to do. Then, all of a sudden the Soldier launched an attack, Keiko's natural reflexes kicked in and she took a swipe at the heartless with her right hand, hoping her long nails would destroy the heartless, or just to make it back off or something. Her body was filled with adrenaline and fear, but also excitement, she always wanted to fight the heartless like her brother. This was her chance for revenge. She felt a tingling sensation up her arm, sort of like a pleasurable pain, the Soldier launched another attack and she went to swipe it with her nails again. But something strange happened, a long flowing red ribbon appeared in her right hand. She took a swipe at the heartless, with the ribbon acting like a whip. It had destroyed the heartless, it disappeared with a cloud of black.
"Seriously, like what the hell?!" she muttered under her breath starting to panic.
The rest of the heartless stared at her with their toxic, glowing yellow eyes. She felt the same tingling sensation in her left arm, bit this time she knew what was going to happen, she smirked a little as the second. Ribbon appeared in her left hand. Then they all attacked, but one by one she destroyed them. Slicing them with her two ribbons. She wasn't scared anymore, she was enjoying it. It felt good to get revenge on the heartless, to avenge her brother at last. She was hoping more would appear and looked all around her suspiciously but also excited. She then noticed a man, well it had the body of a man, he was really muscular and tall. He was in a long black leather cloak with his hood up. She couldn't see his eyes but she could tell that he was looking directly at her, she stood her ground and didn't move.
"What are you looking at?!" she questioned angrily to the hooded figure.
The man stood there for a few seconds and then turned around, he created a swirling dark portal and stood aside it for a moment. He then gestured to it.
"If you're expecting me to just walk into that thing you can piss right off!"
He looked at her and chuckled, his voice was deep and suited his body. He then walked into the portal, and then he and the portal had disappeared. She was wondering whether she should have gone or not... She was curious but she didn't want to die either. She looked where the portal had been for a moment and then walked back down the street, heading off for Redd's house. As she reached the end of the street, she looked back... Nothing.

Meanwhile in the castle that never was...
Xaldin, the third Organization XIII member had appeared on his bright white seat in the circular room. Xemnas was sat on the very tallest seat in the room.
"So, what happened? I see you have not managed to bring her with you?" questioned the leader, looking down at Xaldin.
"She was not willing to come out of her own free will."
Xemnas was about to speak, but he was interrupted by Saix appearing in a lower down seat.
"My lord... We have found another. It looks hopeful. We found it in the Pride Lands." he told Xemnas.
Xemnas looked at him with a slightly curious look and raised an eyebrow.
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