Heart Note
By Little Miss Dragmire
Disclaimer: I own neither Death Note nor Kingdom Hearts, although you will see elements of both in this story. I do own pretty much all of the characters, though, except for a couple you might recognize from the Kingdom Hearts universe. And that was a very poorly phrased disclaimer. I'll try to come up with another one.
Chapter 1
Rolling her shoulders to get the feeling of sitting at a school desk for too long out of her system, the brown-haired girl strolled casually into the library. As she walked in and waved a brief hello to the librarian, she noticed a few of her classmates sitting at the internet access computers. The girl tried to get by them quickly, but no luck. One of them, a blond boy in an American Eagle hoodie, saw her and began to talk far too loudly.
"Oh hello Heather," he drawled, turning to face her. Heather stopped. There was no way she could act like she hadn't heard him, and it was better to get this kind of thing over with.
"Hello, Michael." Her voice was completely calm and emotionless.
"We were just discussing that test we got back today in Worlds History. I wanted to ask you how you did, but you left before I could."
"So?" said another of the boys, turning his attention away from the social networking site up on his computer, "How'd ya do, Heather?"
She sighed. "97."
"Really?" said Michael, smirking, "Well, you're just smart then, aren't you." Heather walked away, but she could hear the boys talking.
"97? I copied off her and I only got a 76!"
"Well, she's just a freak…"
Idiots, she thought to herself as she walked among the shelves, taking down books, you'd think they'd realize that everyone can hear them when they talk that loudly in a library.
Finally Heather had picked enough books settled down in a quiet corner of the reference section. It was one of her favorite places to read, because it was absolutely silent. Ever since a year ago, when rumors started that the corner was haunted, no one but Heather had gone back there. She had heard the sounds, like something was moving or trying to move, but she had always assumed that it was simply people moving around in other sections of the library, or simply her imagination.
As she pressed her back against the shelf and slid down, preparing to deposit the small pile of books she had picked up, she noticed something different, something she somehow hadn't noticed before. The books, volumes of some encyclopedia or other, should have been all lined up, but a few of them were protruding, almost as if there were something behind them…
Heather pulled some of the books forward, and sure enough, there was something wedged back there. It looked to be a book or notebook of some kind. She briefly considered leaving it and going back to her book, but curiosity overcame her and she slipped it out. As soon as she did, she recognized the design on the cover.
That's the Heartless Emblem!
She flipped through the notebook- it was clearly a notebook, she could see that now- and discovered to her surprise that all the pages were blank.
Now who would want to get rid of a perfectly good note… hey what's this?
As she got towards the end, she discovered that the last three pages did have something written on them. The first two had a numbered list of statements; she would read those in a second. But the last page had a list of names.
Xehanort
Braig
Dilan
Even
Aeleus
Ienzo
I know those names, Heather thought, those were Ansem the Wise's apprentices. What is this?
She looked back at the beginning of the list, and began reading.
I… oh, one. These are Roman numerals. The being whose name is written in the Heart Note will become a Heartless. Two… three… four, a person becomes Owner of the Note by writing a name on it… This is ridiculous… Wait, what's this? Number six…
"The Guardian of the Heart Note can only be seen or heard by people who have touched the Note."
Heather jumped and let out a small squeak, then leapt to her feet, dropping the notebook and looking around frantically for the speaker. To her surprise, she saw a boy floating a few inches off the ground.
He looked to be a few years younger than her and may have looked normal if he hadn't been floating and his one of his red eyes hadn't been looking overjoyed at her while the other was hidden by his silver hair.
"Oh, don't worry about me," he said cheerfully, "just keep reading. In fact, why don't you open up one of those other books you've got there? I've read the Note's Rules a few million too many times in my life, and I could use some fresh ink, so to speak."
Heather looked frantically from the boy to the notebook, then held it out to him. "Is this yours?" she asked nervously. The boy's grin faded and he answered, "It is… in a sense. Not that that does you any good. I'm intangible. See?" He thrust his arm through the shelf, then through her head. She jerked back in shock and ran into the shelf behind her. The boy rolled his eyes, "And you, clearly, are not. I'm Ienzo, by the way. What's your name?"
"H-Heather," she answered, taking a breath to pull herself together, then asking, "You mean, Ienzo, as in Ansem the Wise's youngest apprentice Ienzo?" The grin returned, "What's left of him, anyway. And I can tell you more, but only if you agree to take me out of here."
Heather took a moment to look at the situation. I guess this room really is haunted she realized although this is the first time I've seen him… it's also the first time I've seen this notebook thing… the Heart Note, I guess. Wait a minute…
"So you're the Guardian the Note talks about?" Heather asked Ienzo, whose eyebrows- at least the one visible one- shot up.
"Not bad," he said, "You'd be amazed how many of my previous owners I've had to flat-out explain that to. A few of them still didn't get it. I am the Guardian of the Heart Note, bound to it until I am destroyed or freed, and all that. But right now, I am eager to get out of here, and I'm hoping you'll take me with you. I can't go too far from the Note, you see, and I've been stuck in here for much too long."
Huh… so I was right. And he told me a bit more than I expected him to. He must have been here for about a year. Must be lonely… maybe I should take this Note with me. After all, I don't have to write anything in it, right?
"Taking the Note doesn't obligate me to anything, right?" she asked. Surprisingly, Ienzo laughed.
"It won't let me steal your heart or anything, if that's what you mean," he said, "No, aside from being able to detect my presence, you don't have any connection to the Note unless you write something in it. Which can be quite an invigorating experience, from what I've heard, by the way." Now it was Heather's turn to laugh. Whatever Ienzo was, he was starting to grow on her. At least, he wasn't as bad as some of the people she encountered daily.
"Nice try," she said picking up the notebook with her other books, "I'll carry this thing with me for a bit, but I don't think I'm ready to rip anyone's heart out."
"At least, not yet," Ienzo muttered to himself as he followed her through the door to… well, at least a bit more freedom than he'd had.
Phew! Sorry that took so long. Okay, now things are really getting started. For future reference, Heather's thoughts/inner monologues are always going to be in italics, and things written in the Note will be in bold italics (unless it'san author's note at the end of the chapter, in which case it'll be signed by me)- LMD
