Passing through the steeply sloped street of Twilight Town was a boy around the age of 15, silver hair, dressed in blue, yellow and black, relentlessly fighting against the Heartless that kept popping in front of him. It was Riku; he was alone, and he seemed to be looking for something. That is, that seemed to be so only when the Heartless would give him a short break.
Thankfully, such a moment just occurred. He whacked the last Shadow on its head with his trusty dark blade, and then he stopped to take a look around the empty town. It wasn't like the place seemed dead; it was just so oddly devoid of people. Folks must have taken cover because of all the monsters, he thought.
Before he could delve any further on the topic, another Heartless appeared behind his back. Riku quickly turned around as he heard it. They jumped at each other, and others came to the monster's aid, giving Riku the start of another fight.
"Jeez... These guys just don't give up!" he said as he destroyed one part of the lot. He was starting to feel worn out. Without even noticing, he began to back away from them. He had been fighting them through the whole town ever since he got there.
He was chased to the part enclosed by buildings. Luckily, Riku managed to lose them behind the last corner, so he stopped to catch his breath. But then something in front of him caught his attention. Somebody, or something, was hiding behind a small stony counter in front of a store. He carefully took a closer look.
Two bare human hands were placed on top of the counter, and only a few messy strands of yellowish hair were visible behind it. They slowly moved up, revealing a lot of golden hair covering a shaky head. Then two big girly eyes, greenish, and filled with fright, showed up, looking straight at him.
"Huh?" Riku said, confused. The person quickly dived back behind their hiding place. She's probably hiding from the Heartless, Riku thought. And that thought proved to be right already the next instant, because another swarm found him again. He growled and turned to them, going into attack.
This time, he had to be extra careful, especially to keep them away from the counter. He slashed at the flying Heartless first, while dodging the attacks of those that were on the ground. Luckily, these guys weren't the really powerful ones, so it was easy to beat them. However, there were quite a few, and constantly swinging the blade with his full strength was tiresome.
Making a twirl at the last two Heartless, he finally finished them off. Panting, he slowly lifted his gaze from the ground, as his neck felt like the only part of him that wasn't too heavy to move. The girl that was behind the counter wasn't there anymore. Or so he thought, before she peeked behind it again.
"Hey," he tried greeting her cheerfully, but it seemed to frighten her even more, so she ducked as he finished, "Are you okay?" However, in a few moments, she showed up again, revealing herself a bit more than before. "It's okay," Riku tried reassuring her. "Are you hurt? Those Heartless were all over the place..."
The girl shook her head timidly, rising up. She seemed to be a teenage, probably around Kairi's age. She wore a light yellow sleeveless shirt and a matching medium long skirt. "Oh, good," Riku said, slowly moving towards her. "My name's Riku. What's yours?" For whatever reason, the question seemed to shock her, and that confused him. "... Y... you don't have to tell me if you don't want to..." He couldn't tell if that was the case, as she became very nervous, and started glancing around. "... Is... everything alright?"
She looked at him straight in the eye, like not knowing what to do; then she got an idea and gestured to the front base of her neck, like wanting to tell him something was wrong there. "You... have a really sore throat?" he guessed, unsure. She shook her head, looking away. Then, she noticed something on the ground behind him.
Riku turned to see what it was and the girl went towards it; there was a small pile of ripped pieces of paper, and a broken pencil. She kneeled down to them, seeming disappointed and sad. Then she started looking through what was left of what looked like it had been a notebook, and Riku realized he must have unintentionally destroyed it during the fight.
The girl found a bigger piece of paper, took the broken pencil and quickly scribbled something on it. She rose up, went back to him and handed it. The piece was big enough just to hold 3 simple words - 'I can't talk.'
"... Ohh..." he said awkwardly, realizing what she must have meant. That put her at some ease.
Suddenly, there was a sound of Heartless appearing outside of the place where they were. Both of them quickly turned to see where did it come from and which one was it. Luckily, it was just one Darkball, and it wiggled about on the street outside, unaware of their presence.
Before anything else, Riku quickly grabbed the girl's hand and led them behind the counter. Once out of sight, he checked to see if they were spotted. The Heartless went patrolling in the other direction, still unwary.
He sighed in relief. "It didn't spot us," he told her. That may have comforted her a bit, but she just kept looking at him with a worried expression. "Umm..." he started, remembering his current situation, "... I'm sorry... about the notebook..." It took her a moment to get it, then she quickly looked away, shrugging it off. She wasn't upset with him about it.
"Soo... any idea where everybody else is?... I haven't seen anyone ever since I got here..." he asked nervously, not sure if she'll be able to give him an answer. The girl slowly shook her head, equally uneasy, biting her lower lip in the process. Riku quickly broke the tension and glanced around.
Then she suddenly remembered something. She touched his arm lightly to get his attention, and when he turned to her, she slowly put her index finger up. It took Riku a few seconds to get what it might mean. "Oh, you've seen someone?" Finally, she nodded. Then she took a moment to think up a way how to explain.
Without any better idea, she extended her arm in front of her, showing with her hand a distance between the ground and it. It wasn't really big. "Okay... the person was small...?..." he guessed. She glanced at him, nodded, then proceeded with the next clue. She pretended to have something behind her back, and like she pulled something from her shoulders over her head. "Hooded?" Riku said. Once confirmed, she started motioning two big circles on each side of the top of her head. "Round things on... Oh! The King! You saw the King?!"
She wasn't really sure what he meant with 'the king', but she nodded anyway. "So that means..." he said to himself. Actually, he had no idea what it meant, but it was a good choice to come here and inspect the place.
Anyway, right now they needed to find a better place to hide. "Is there anywhere safe we can go to?" he asked her. She looked down, not being able to think of any such place. "Alright... guess we gotta make ourselves our own then," Riku said, looking over the counter to check where the Heartless were. The girl blinked blankly at him, not knowing what he meant. Riku thought for a moment. This isn't my first visit here. So, where was it that was most secluded...?...
 ...The mansion? But, to get there, they'd have to go through a forest, and who knows what was in it now. Sure, he could pass through by himself, but if he had to take care of a defenseless girl as well... It would be so much easier to just hide somewhere nearby now. Inside of a building or something.
"Are any of these shops open?" he asked, referring to the numerous shops that were in the Market District where they were now. She looked away and shook her head. "Great," he said sarcastically. "They could have at least kept them open for others to find shelter."
That left only one choice - he had to clear out the place of Heartless. He rose up, while the girl stared at him in shock.
"We have to find out what's going on," he told her. "We can't just sit here all day. The Heartless are pouring out of someplace, and we have to stop them..." Seeing her looking at him like he went mad, he added: "Well, I'll stop them. You just have to stay close so I can protect you."
She gave it a thought. She definitely didn't want to stay alone, and, even if it was dangerous, going with him would probably give her a better chance of staying safe. So, she looked up at him and gave him a nod.
Then she slowly started getting up, and Riku offered her a hand. "Don't worry," he reassured her, while helping her up, "I'll keep them as far away from you as possible."
The girl shyly looked up at him, and Riku realized he was still holding her hand. He quickly let go and looked away, feeling awkward. It was the same for her. "Okay..." he started, turned away from her, "...let's go..." He started walking back from where he came from, and the girl followed, her gaze glued to his back.
They moved to the very edge of the building and peeked from there. The Darkball was still there.
"Alright, here's the plan: I'll go make a distraction. Odds are, more are going to appear. If that happens, I'll fight them off. You just stay here. But, do show yourself a little from the edge of the corner - just so that I can see you." The girl was nervous, but confirmed she'll do it. "If anything goes wrong..." he trailed off. He almost forgot she couldn't call. "... Well, either make some noise, hide, or run to me - I'll think of something."
As uncreative as those ideas were, they were approved, and Riku bolted off onto the street. He gave the Heartless a surprise, and with a few slashes with his Soul Eater, it was gone. But, like he predicted, more appeared.
He turned around a few times during the battle and glanced at the girl, to make sure she was OK, but that earned him a kick in the back from an aerial attack. However, he paid the monsters back for it right away.
After a while, the street was cleared. Riku wiped the sweat away from his forehead and the girl quickly walked up to him. She looked concerned. "Don't worry," he instantly started straightening himself, "this is as easy as it can get!" Truth be told, he played it cool.
They proceeded right into the next part of town, where more Heartless made a welcoming committee for them. The girl quickly ducked behind some cans and boxes, and Riku went at them. There were a lot of spell-casting small Heartless, so he jumped up, hit one towards a few others, then made a powered up smash to the ground, destroying the ones that were bellow. After that, he concentrated on the ones above.
When it was over, he turned around to look for the girl, but she was nowhere to be seen. He opened his mouth to call for her, and then it hit him - he didn't know her name. Luckily enough, she rose up from where she was. He went to her.
"Ughhh..." he sighed, relaxing his back "... I'm really starting to feel all this... I hope there aren't many more out there." She was just looking at him silent and timid.
"... Hey, I just realized," he said, "I... don't know your name..." She gave him that half-shocked look again, and he got confused as to why, like he did before. "What, you don't wanna give it to me?" he asked reluctantly. The girl got even more shocked and shook her head very fast, meaning to tell him that was not the case. "... Something's wrong with it?" She was desperate because she didn't know how to answer. "... Okay, do you at least have it?" he asked, running out of ideas. She gave him a troubled look, turned her gaze away for a moment, and then turned back shrugging very sadly. Riku went speechless.
"... You don't... know...?" he didn't even know how to finish the question. How does one not know about their own name?
There was an awkward silence.
"... Well, how about a nickname or something?... I mean, I really need to be able to call you." She stared blankly at him. "Hmmm..." he started thinking. "How about something simple, like Aki? Annie?" She just blinked. "... Vall?... Hey, how about Zuki?"
She didn't respond for a moment, but then she gave it a quick thought and nodded. "OK, Zuki it is then. Untill... you find your true name..." The girl was finally OK with it all.
"OK... Now... how about you tell me where you got the notebook? So I can get you another." Zuki was dumbfounded. Then she quickly thought of a way to tell him, although she felt kinda stupid for having to come up only with that. She shyly bent down, again showing with her hand a distance from the ground, then made two circles at the top of that. After it, she pointed at 'it', then made a gesture like giving something away and pointed at herself in the end. "Oh, the King gave it to you?" She confirmed. She wanted to simply ask him why did he keep calling the one she referred to 'king', but, she lacked the way of doing it.
"Great, now I'm in hot water..." Surely, Mickey wasn't going to be mad at him for it, but none the less it made him feel bad he destroyed something the mouse helped with. "... Is there a bookshop around?" The question caught Zuki by surprise. She never really saw one or gave it a thought.
Riku saw she was having trouble responding. "Maybe we'll find one along the way?" She looked up at him. She shrugged a bit, wanting to say "Perhaps." With that, they continued.

Here's Chapter 1.

I am overwhelmed with editing on FF. Net for now, so not much will be said. XD Also, I'd hate to repeat here what I already said in the ANs on dA, but I can't figure out a way to give you a good link to everything I uploaded.

Please just enjoy the story for the time being, and let me know what you think if you can. ;P I'll be back soon!