Prologue

The sound of metal against metal filled the blistering hot air of a desolate wasteland made up of miles of dry cracked earth upon which all present fought for their hearts. Each combatant fighting for the X-Blade, the legendary Keyblade of unmatched power.

"Look out!" called Shinsei as a blast of fire sailed overhead.

"Thanks, Shin." Kada, dressed in white and blue faded clothes, called back. Shinsie gave a nod to his friend, then focused on the source of the spell. He dug his feet deep into the ground and launched with great speed at the opposing Keyblade wielder. Catching his opponent off guard, Shinsie unleashed a series of quick but effective blows; the last one knocking him back a few feet.

"All yours, Kada." Shinsie informed.

"Got it." Kada replied as a large crystal of ice formed at the end of his Keyblade, he jumped back a short distance and landed in a casting stance, shooting it straight for Shinsie's former opponent. The crystal struck dead center encasing him in large crystals of ice.

"Your turn, Raylin." shouted Kada. At that moment, a women in purple armor and a mini skirt, with red hair tied back and pinned up, came flying in from above. With immense strength, she struck the man in ice shattering it leaving nothing but a crack in the ground where he had stood only a moment ago.

"Excessive much?" Shinsie teased.

"That was nothing." Raylin replied, as she struck her next challenger with an upward blow sending him into the air. Shinsie followed up by jumping to meet him, striking a total of five times before the sixth strike sent him hurdling back to the ground.

"Yeah and stay down!" Kada exclaimed with humor as he cast a gravity spell making their foe crash into the ground even harder.

"This is no time to joke around." said a man in a blue shirt and white pants. He had long straight black hair that seemed even darker due to a streak of gray running all the way down on the left side.

"Sorry, Master Yen Sid." Kada replied. Yen Sid cast a thunder spell dropping four more apposing Keyblade wielders. The battle commenced endlessly for hours and Shinsie eventually was separated from his friends. By this point, Kada was secluded as well as surrounded by the enemy forces. Kada , thinking quickly, casted a multitude of spells simultaneously. He cast Reflega to protect himself from incoming attacks and have these attacks automatically countered. Aeroga to injure any that came too near. Knowing these wouldn't last long with a major beating, he added Stopga to freeze some of the surrounding foes in place. He then proceeded on with a series of offensive spells, one after another attempting to thin out the enemies numbers. Although he had an exceedingly high amount of magic, his energy quickly became near depleted. Kada looked around thinking he had created a good sized dent in the opposition, but this dent was quickly replaced. With being nearly drained of all his energy he made one final attempt to clear himself from the enemies nearing him. Kada staggered to his feet.

"Magnega!" He cried, knowing this would quiet possibly be the last word from his lips. A great vortex formed above him at the tip of his Keyblade, sucking in a large majority of his opponents, causing them to collide with one another in midair before dropping them to the ground. Without a single drop of energy left in him, Kada collapsed to the dry cracked earth. Seeing this threw Raylin into a rampage, demolishing countless enemies. Unfortunately this made her reckless and a little more predictable. As she came down with a mighty strike to the head, her new opponent blocked the incoming attack and struck Raylin's mid-section knocking her back. Once she came to a full stop she realized that this wasn't going to be an ordinary opponent. This new foe wielded two Keyblades. Raylin regained her stance and tried to channel her rage knowing this would be a tough battle to win. The mysterious duel wielder took the offense, and by extension, taking the advantage having the ability to dish out double the damage. Raylin struggled to find a way to regain the offensive which would give her the upper hand. It was then that she recognized the man in front of her. This was Ryxo, Yen Sid's pupil. Then she recognized the second Keyblade he held. A long silver shaft Tipped with what could easily be mistaken as an axe blade. The guard blossoming backward like a thin black flower. It was the Exordium. It was Kada's Keyblade. Rage fueled Raylin as she gazed past Ryxo and saw the limp body of her friend, crippled on the ground. She didn't have time to ask questions. She didn't want his explanation. She wanted his head.

Shinsie, unaware of any of this, fought for his own life. It pained him to be forced to fight against those that he had spent most of his life with. Some were his students and others, fellow masters whom had fought and taught alongside him. He found himself fighting more than one opponent at once. It was easy to forget that Shinsei was a master of close combat. He refused to duel his students, against all prompting and pleading. He would never fight in the presence of a student.

A man charged at Shinsei from the front, clad in Keyblade armor of white and bronze. The man leaped into the air to strike from above. But Shinsei had invented the counter tactic for this attack. As the man descended on Shinsei, the young Master spun his Keyblade in his hand and took a defensive, back hand stance. Just as the attacker came within range, Shinsei hooked the teeth of his Keyblade into the man's side and flung him to the ground. To finish his assault, Shinsei lifted one foot and slammed his heel into the helmet of the downed man. The helmet shattered but he didn't dare look to see who he had struck down. Shinsei then spun around quickly, jumping into the air, he threw a powerful kick into the side of another attackers head that attempted to flank him.

Shinsei always tried his hardest to prevent this war by teaching the importance in the balance of light and dark within the heart, although he knew this day was almost inevitable. As he fought on dropping one opponent after another, fearing any one of them could have been a former student of his. Shinsei ignored these thoughts and continued on fighting still unaware of anything that happened to his friends. A third attacker came from the right swinging her Keyblade wildly. Shinsei swung his own to knock her Keyblade aside. The collision of the two Keyblades sounded like shattering glass. The world around him began to fade away and he found himself standing in his own room again.

With shattered glass at his feet and Keyblade in had he realized everything was nothing more than a dream about his haunting past. Shinsei, taking note of the glass, looked to the right and noticed that he had broken the cover to a picture on his wall. He walked over to the picture and took it off the wall. It was a picture of himself with his old friends Kada and Raylin on either side of him the day they had become Masters themselves. As he shook the remaining glass from the frame, he slid the picture from its now broken frame and tucked it safely away in his vest pocket.

The wind blew gently from an open window that led to the bright morning light outside his home. The breeze shifting his black vest on his shoulders slightly, making the crossed Keyblade silhouette on its back appear to be moving. His matching black pants hung loosely on his hips. A red emblem was pressed into both legs and could be recognized as the Heartless Crest. This was the man who had Taught and Trained at the first Master's Academy, Keyblade Castle. This was the man who fought in the Keyblade wars of old and lived. This was the man who had lost his heart and conquered the heartless he became to get it back. This was Master Shinsei. And this is his story.