The next day, in the Mysterious Tower, Fusa was inside her temporary quarters asleep in her bed, while in her outfit, by the narrow window. There were no dreams to come to her this time, no thoughts came to her head, not even a memory. Simply emptiness that occupied her mind. Her sleep was fortunately interrupted when a voice woke her up to a slow start.
"Miss Fusa, dear," Fauna's voice piped up outside the door as Fusa opened her eyes and sat up on the bed, "Master Yen Sid requests that you would be served breakfast before you start your training today. We will be waiting in the Wardrobe Room for you."
She turned her head to the door across the way and scratched her head briefly with her right hand, wondering if she really heard Fauna correctly. That, and the concept of breakfast sounded fascinating to her. So she swung her legs to the edge of the bed and stood up, picked up her backpack, pulled out the trinket out of her pocket, and held it high above her head. This caused the door to glow and teleport her out into the Star Chamber, where Fauna was waiting for her. However, the fairy in green had to leave and turned to walk out of the Star Chamber, wanting the young wielder to follow behind. Fusa found this exceptionally odd, but didn't want to question it yet. So she followed behind Fauna and out into the spiral stairs after putting the trinket back into her pocket.
Down the staircase and through the magical portal, Fusa had thoughts of asking Fauna much more questions if there was enough time for. It wouldn't hurt to ask more questions, or at least she hoped it would quench her curiosity.
"So, Miss Fauna," she spoke up as the fairy in green listened well. "Do you have any powers of your own, by chance?"
"Why yes, dearie," Fauna answered with a nod as they descended down the stairs, "My fellow sisters and I have special powers, though they're generally not used for fighting. We only use them to bring joy and happiness. Flora has the power to control plant life, I control the animals, and Merryweather controls the weather. But these powers are not the only ones we have."
"What do you mean?" Fusa inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"We also grant special gifts to children as early as infants," Fauna answered again to her. "My gift is that of song. Flora's gift would be beauty. Though these gifts would not be stronger than most, they are actually quite useful for good."
"What about Merryweather's gift? Does it have a connection to her power?" Fusa asked again before they reached to the portal leading to the Entrance Room.
"Well, her gift to is quite different from ours," the fairy in green answered as they stopped in front of the portal. "Though she cannot erase a problem, she simply makes a solution to it instead. Consider it a silver lining to a dark cloud, dearie. We tend to refer to it as 'hope' to an extent."
A silver lining to a dark cloud… Fusa thought to herself curiously. Perhaps her power would be the same as well.
As she thought to herself, however, Fauna passed through the portal and the young wielder followed behind down the spiral steps of the Entrance Room. There, they descended down the stairs and headed over to the Wardrobe Room, where the other two fairies were sitting by the table full of pastries, fruits, and tea. Yen Sid was nowhere to be seen in the room except for the fairies and Fusa only. Fusa herself was surprised that breakfast would be so grand and different than what she thought it would be. However, she gave a delighted smile to the elderly women and joined them at the table to eat.
During breakfast, the fairies were discussing to each other on different topics. Flora and Merryweather were bickering about which color is best to use, blue or pink, while Fauna was attempting to be the neutral peacekeeper out of the trio. Fusa, on the other hand, was too busy enjoying her breakfast; mainly her twentieth or twenty-first pastry with pieces of apple filled inside, her tenth croissant, some strawberries and blueberries, and plenty of cups of tea. All without gaining a large stomach. It was complete bliss for her, despite using a simple fork and a knife out of courtesy for the fairies, but bliss nonetheless. Not one moment did the fairies stop to speak to her, but it didn't matter. For a moment as she ate carefully yet quickly, she didn't want to be interrupted.
As Fusa was eating her breakfast and the fairies were talking amongst each other, Yen Sid entered into the room behind the young Newborn Nobody's chair. The three fairies stopped talking and Fusa turned her head to see him, for he had his arms crossed in front of his chest in a stern manner. The trio felt caught, though Fusa was unaware of what was going on. One thing was for certain for them, however: he was waiting for them in the Courtyard.
"I suppose you were having breakfast longer than expected," he spoke to them with a stern tone. Fusa winced with shame as the fairies used their magic from their wands to clean the table up and got her to stand on her feet.
"We're very sorry, Master Yen Sid," Merryweather apologized to him for her fellow fairies and the young wielder. "We lost track of the time."
"I accept your apology, Merryweather," he responded to them before giving them a reminder, "Just remember to check outside from the windows. I could also see you from where I was standing." With that, he vanished in a puff of smoke, making Fusa jump back a bit in a startled manner.
"Come along now, dears," Flora then spoke to the other two fairies as they began to fly away with their wings and Fusa watched them with awe, "We mustn't keep Master Yen Sid waiting for us in the courtyard." She stopped and turned to Fusa. "You as well, dear."
The young Keyblade wielder nodded and followed the fairies behind out of the Wardrobe Room and into the courtyard. There, she noticed that there was a contraption in place of barrels from yesterday. She wondered if her training today would involve something different than before. The contraption, she noticed, was connected to a wheel with five straw dummies holding a strange red and black heart-like symbol on their chests hung by the ropes. Nonetheless, Fusa joined up with Yen Sid and the good fairies across the way, where she saw that there was more than one contraption of the same design.
"Look before you, Fusa," Yen Sid spoke to her as she listened to him closely for instructions. "What you see before you are Training Dummies. In the past, students of the Keyblade masters used golden rings to train with. However, after the Heartless were created, there were talks of redesigning the contraptions. So, the golden rings were scrapped and replaced with the Training Dummies. In the previous training, you adjusted to the three basic attacks: Thrust, Vertical Slash, and Horizontal Slash. Now it is time to test these attacks, only this time, you will need to lock onto the moving targets. Each Training Dummy contains Health Orbs and Munny as well as Heart Orbs."
"What's a 'Heart Orb'?" Fusa asked with curiosity, repeating the words "Heart Orb" slowly..
"A 'Heart Orb' is similar to the Health Orbs," he explained to her as he showed her a hologram of a pink-shaped Orb with red filling in it, "Except they boost your powers rather than your health. When your powers run out, Heart Orbs restore them when they are absorbed. In battle, your Heart powers will be used to temporarily control your enemies, giving you great advantage of their strength. However, it would also weaken your powers' strength, so the Heart Orbs are useful to have when you defeat an enemy. So remember to use your powers wisely when you fight."
Fusa nodded as a response to him before summoning her Keyblade in her hand in a flash of light. She held a grip on the handle of the weapon, no longer afraid of holding it in her hand with assurance from Yen Sid's words. She walked forward to the training contraption and positioned herself to attack. With Yen Sid and the good fairies, however, they watched with supervision as the sorcerer himself made a flick of his wrist, creating a light gust of wind to make the wheel turn. Fusa became unaware of what he did, for she only jumped back a bit with surprise and watched the wheel turn horizontally. Mentally, however, watching the wheel turn made her brain scrambled and she shook her head to focus on her training.
She made a quick charge forward at the contraption, coil-jumped up to one of the Training Dummies, tightly gripping onto the handle of the Keyblade with both hands, and executed a Vertical Slash on it before landing on the ground on her feet. Upon impact, the Dummy's Heartless emblem was cut in half as damage, the other half falling to the dirt to the wind as the wheel turned behind her. Fusa turned and watched with her Keyblade ready and waited for the damaged Training Dummy to come around. When it did come around, as shown by the cut symbol on its chest, she followed it and made another jump up at it. This time, she made a quick combo of a Horizontal Slash and Thrust, wrecking the Dummy completely.
When it was wrecked, the rope that hung the Dummy snapped and collapsed to the ground, causing a few Health Orbs, Munny, and a Heart Orb to pop out from the body. Fusa saw this and walked over to the spoils. Where the Orbs were absorbed, she picked the dropped Munny up and placed it in her backpack. She took note that the Heart Orb had a strawberry flavor when it was absorbed into her system and that her heart felt strange. Yen Sid made a flick of his wrist again, to which the wheel stopped turning and Fusa turned to him to see if he had anything to say.
"The Heart Orbs that you collect will increase not only the strength of your power of Heart, but also the chance of greater control," he explained to her for a moment as she listened to him. "Yet they have a slim chance of boosting your powers when the strength increases. Make the best of your Heart powers while you can." Now that he had the explanation out of the way, Yen Sid made another flick of the wrist and the wheel began to turn again.
Fusa turned to the rotating Training Dummies and prepared her Keyblade to try again to see if there were any more of the Heart Orbs inside of the Dummies. With that, she made a quick run at one of them and jumped up, executing another Horizontal Slash and Thrust combo on it, causing the rope that hung it to snap and the Dummy to collapse, spilling spoils in the process. She did the combo to the next two Dummies all while collecting the fallen spoils in the meantime and landing on the ground on her feet, albeit a little unbalanced. Fusa felt a light boost of strength in her muscles, feeling as if she increased her metabolism. So she turned to another Dummy and made a jump at it. This time, however, she made an air combo of a Vertical Slash and a Horizontal Slash, cutting the Dummy in four pieces and causing spoils to spill onto the ground. She found the chance to absorb the fallen Health and Heart Orbs as well as collect the few Munny on the ground. She checked to see if there were any more, and found that there were two left.
As Yen Sid and the Fairies watched Fusa practice on the Training Dummies, the sorcerer kept his arms crossed with thought as Fauna looked at him with concern. She felt that something was bothering him yet didn't know what exactly. He knew that her concern was showing to him, but did not avert his eyes away from the Newborn Nobody once.
"Her power of Heart is a gift wielded for good, but there will be times where it would be used for the wrong reasons," he explained to Fauna as she listened yet her sisters focused on only Fusa's skills. "Her curiosity and innocence will make her a target for those with dark intentions to take advantage of her then dispose of her when they're done. If her power is not harnessed carefully, then it would prove dangerous and present her as a threat."
"But Master Yen Sid," Fauna began to ask him with unsure thoughts. "How can you be sure that the young dear wouldn't work for the Heartless?"
"The King and my former student had arranged with an acquaintance of his that Fusa will be accompanied with a couple of companions to keep her from going into the hands of Darkness," he answered to her. "Even then, only a boost in a developing morality would keep her on the path to light, even if she truly does not exist."
Back with Fusa, she waited for the remaining Training Dummies to swing back around to her direction. When they did, she jumped up between them and executed a combo of Thrust and a Vertical Slash, slightly cutting them both. But it was enough for the ropes to snap off, cause the Dummies to collapse to the ground, and spill Orbs and Munny. Once she got to the ground, Fusa then stretched her back out since it was starting to become sore and examined her surroundings a bit. She noticed that there were no more Training Dummies for now and began to collect the Munny and absorb the Orbs into her system. When she was finished collecting the spoils, her Keyblade disappeared in a flash of light and she turned to Yen Sid to see if there was something for him to say to her next.
"Impressive work, young one," he stated to her with a stern nod. "You seemed to slightly improve on your technique. Now that you know the three basic strikes, we shall move onto your Heart abilities. The next set of Training Dummies will be needed in this section of your training, the section in which you must practice your abilities."
"My Heart abilities?" Fusa murmured to herself curiously.
"You are aware of what you learned about them, are you not?" he inquired to her, but she nodded to him that she understood. "To mend and break, to create and destroy. You have been given knowledge of what your power can prove of. Now it is time for you to test your skills if you can yield to them."
Fusa nodded to him that she understood him. In truth, she was not sure if her heart could give her the proper reaction needed for her abilities. All it would take for her, naturally, would be focus and patience- both which she needs now.
She approached the next wheel of Training Dummies and stopped at one of them, confusion rising within her senses. For some reason, Fusa noticed, that she could feel some sort of a heart within the straw innards. She swore that she could have felt a heartbeat… Then she heard a loud crack and became shocked by what she heard. Was it possible that she heard a heart break? She didn't want to know.
The fractured heartbeat grew faint, one beat at a time, inside of Fusa's head. There was no telling if there was a real heart inside of the Training Dummy. She paid close attention to where it was located before raising her hands onto the heart symbol. A soft collapse caused the heartbeat to increase its sound, until it grew louder to the point of struggle. Her hands began to shake as she struggled to concentrate. As this happened, the three fairies grew concerned that the young Newborn Nobody wouldn't survive, though Yen Sid watched to see what would happen in her case. No doubt that he expected what could happen with a first timer's experience with Heart powers.
As Fusa struggled to keep control of her newfound powers, however, the Training Dummy imploded and was split in twain, its lower half collapsing to the ground. Only a few Health Orbs, two Heart Orbs, and one Munny fell out of the split Dummy. She was wide-eyed with shock and a gapping mouth by what happened. The three fairies that watched gasp with surprise though Yen Sid was unfazed; he merely sighed as if he knew what was to happen.
"Oops…" Fusa squeaked to herself with a hint of worry before reluctantly moving forward to collect the spoils, afraid the destroyed heart would either splatter or clatter to the ground. Her mind only focused on what the shattered heart would look like, thinking that it resembled cracked porcelain, whatever it was.
Upon absorbing the orbs and collecting the Munny, she was approached by the sorcerer, who had a stern expression and arms crossed in front of his beard. She looked down with shame before she could say anything else.
"Do not be ashamed of your inexperience," Yen Sid then advised to her as she looked up at him. "Though you are young, there is still time for you to harness your powers based on the path you choose. But the path you choose will not always be black or white."
"What do you mean, Master?" Fusa asked him with confusion.
"Your morality will lie in grey shades in hearts of many," he explained to her. "Either you choose to use your powers and your Keyblade for good or bad will not matter. What will matter, however, is how those you will meet will react. Some will ally you, others will wish death upon you. Some will not know what you are, others will recognize your kind from their past. It will take time for them to learn more about you or they will simply ignore you. Even then, be weary of your surroundings in your journey."
"Yes, Master," Fusa responded with a nod of her head with a growth of seriousness in her voice.
Back inside the tower, Fusa was sitting on a ladder step inside the tower's study, which was cluttered with books of old, stars and moons on the ceiling, and ink pots scattered on the tables and shelves. She was examining the journal book out of curiosity, feeling its delicate leather texture bounded by an unbreakable substance.
Whoever or whatever wrote the journal, she thought to herself as she tapped her thumb on the cover, Doesn't want their secrets exposed. But why would it in my chambers?
As she thought to herself, however, Fusa heard a squawking sound and snapped her head up in surprise. She noticed that there was a purple covered cage in the study that stuck out like a sore thumb. She didn't know if Yen Sid or the three fairies told her about the squawking creature in the covered cage, but she knew it sounded distressed. It was quickly thrashing about inside of the cage violently as Fusa put the leather journal on the nearest shelf, carefully got off of the ladder and slowly approached the covered creature, not wanting to panic it. She was afraid yet curious; afraid that she would be caught by Yen Sid or the three fairies, curious to see what was in the cage.
She reached to the purple drapes and made a grip on it, pulling it to reveal a locked birdcage with a raven in it. It was squawking loudly, as Fusa noticed as she covered her ears, with unusual golden eyes and purple bags under its eyes. She also noticed that it was thrashing around in the cage, trying to escape its prison. However, by its actions, she wasn't sure if her powers could control it.
When it saw her, however, it stopped thrashing around and simply stood, staring at her suspiciously. Or at least with a grin from its beak. She grew from curious to nervous upon seeing the raven's unexpected action shift. Either it was plotting an attack on her or it was showing its gratitude towards her in a strange way. Either way, Fusa felt conflicted to either leave it caged or let it go.
She slowly stepped towards the cage, looking for a lock that was keeping the raven inside from freedom. Upon approaching the cage, the bird did not panic one bit. Instead, it eyed on her very carefully. To Fusa, however, it was unsettling and perhaps disjointing to see a bird to that. She was able to find a handle that kept the cage door and unlatched it, opening the cage door for the raven. However, as she took a few steps back away from the cage, the raven squawked and leapt out, its wings opening and taking flight. She ducked to avoid getting attacked by the bird, though it was not focusing on her.
Instead, it landed on a broken chest and picked up a black robe with an inner purple color with its beak, to which Fusa lifted her head to see the bird. She realized that it was devious and was thinking of a plan to escape. How she could be a fool to fall for that trick she would never know. What mattered now is that she has to put it back into the cage before anything else would happen. She took a chance and made a leap at it, but it took off, and she tumbled onto the wall with a loud thud. It was too late to react, for the raven was gone without a trace.
Fusa struggled to get up due to her legs hanging over her body until she toppled over and her legs hit the books. She winced upon impact, but found out that she could swing her legs so she would sit up. Once she sat up, Fusa cracked her neck so she would no longer feel any discomfort before she rolled her shoulder blades to crack them as well. Oh, the mess she made from trying to catch that bird made her blush with shame.
"How am I going to tell Master Yen Sid about this?" she asked herself quietly with worry as she placed her right hand on her head on confusion.
She would only hope that the pesky raven would not cause any more trouble than it did to her today. She also would have to hope that whatever plans it had with the robe wouldn't be worse than expected in a moment.