The Harvesting
In a dark alley of large city, used by none other than drug lords, prostitutes, and the occasional black cat, a gaping black shadow manifested on a brick wall and out stepped a black-hooded figure. The nearby cat glanced at the figure briefly before a rat and her hunger diverted her attention.
A quiet, ambient voice echoed from the walls as the figure stepped back into the odd, bleak shadow.
"This world has been connected."
Within this city, a man of high standing and having long lost the good within his spirit, succumbed to the temptation of getting away with a massive theft, but he had yet to know the personal cost. He had made millions through his methods, but his wife and children left him after finding out the truth.
Just days afterwards, he began experiencing terrible heart pains. Not a week went by before he strangely disappeared.
A string of several murders occurred throughout the city only days later. The killer, morbid and cold. Investigations found a disgusting detail in common with them all; the victims all had their heart torn out of their chest.
After many of these murders occurred, citizens and police alike became increasingly panicked. The murders just consistently increased in frequency.
A few would-be victims escaped with disturbingly common descriptions of the murder. Or murderers? They had skin black as coal, eyes glowing like dim yellow stars, devoid of humanity. When the deed was done, they would slink back into the shadows as if they were made of the same substance. For that reason, they earned the name Shadows.
Unknown to all during this chaos, a group of semi-human "people" were rising. They met in secret, to discuss their situation. These were some of the victims, but these victims were saintly in life. They were corpses, their hearts removed, the remaining blood in the bodies serving no apparent purpose. But they were missing something. They thirsted for a part of themselves and were driven this uneasy emptiness. Like ghouls, they scoured cities at night for whatever it might be. As they came closer to people, they began able to feel again.
The sensation of warmth was a precious feeling to have taken for granted in life.
They began to harvest hearts from people too, as if competing with the Shadow-killers. Contrary to their past life, they now had only logic and hunger, for compassion and empathy were now like foreign languages. They called themselves Harvesters, but their true name would be given to them soon enough. They collected hearts, and brought them to a quarantined space inside of a secret hideout. They kept the hearts alive in jars and with strange medical equipment. The killings continued as society gradually crumbled by fear.
A boy hero arose in the city, the first to slay one of the Shadows.
He was destined to be the one to slay them all.
The Harvesters retreated to their lair upon finding out about the boy.
They gazed upon their collection of hearts.
Without their own hearts or pulse or legal proof of existence, they were just...Nobodies.
Their collection could not be threatened.
They callously decided they must slay their former brethren to harvest hearts and convert to their cause.
They would build a new kingdom, a society of Nobodies.
In this society, they would be real and accepted.
They would call their new world,
Kingdom Hearts