Obligatory: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia.

Lauriam, Elrena and Luxord all tensed up as a man clad in the same black coat as them stepped out of the dark corridor in front of them. Even if he wasn't looking at her, Lauriam could feel Elrena roll her eyes. Hard.

"Ugh! You're here too?" she exclaimed in disgust.

Lauriam would have found that amusing, if he currently wasn't dealing with feelings of his sister being alive with amnesia and Darkness being around and once again a threat to his sister. He felt more inclined to summon his scythe and slash at the man in front of him.

"Well, this is a surprise. If there was someone I didn't think I would ever see again, it was you. How are you here, Xemnas?" Lauriam asked.

Xemnas pulled down his hood and his silver hair spilled forward, silver eyes meeting his blue ones. Lauriam was somewhat thrown off by the change from orange. Besides the eye colour, there was something different with how Xemnas now looked at the three of them. What it was, he couldn't place right now.

"Are you truly that astonished?" he answered.

"After all the things Xehanort pulled to be able to create his Keyblade War, I would have been more amazed if you hadn't found a way to stick around after Sora struck you down. That is what happened, isn't it?" Lauriam stated soberly.

To their absolute surprise, a mixed look of bitter amusement showed on Xemnas's face.

"Indeed. His strength often surpasses one's expectations."

"No one here would argue that Sora is a great player." Luxord interjected. "Still, you have not answered the question. You were only able to be in this time due to Xehanort's younger self fetching your heart from the past and having it put in a replica body. If Sora defeated you, how are you still here?"

"It is true that with my existence as a Nobody, I do not have a body of my own to return to and cease to exist when I am destroyed."

"But?" Lauriam prompted. Xemnas put the palm of his hand over his chest.

"When Sora bested me once more I had a surge of emotion for the first time as myself. My heart was my own, not Xehanort's." he continued.

Lauriam was surprised to know what he meant. When he had been defeated in the Skein of Severance, he had felt for the first time in a long time and regained his memories again.

Elrena sighed.

"So what? That doesn't explain how you are still here. It's not like you have the same powers as the geezer."

"Yes, she is correct. Even if you have a heart of your own, it would still go back in time to the past when you were destroyed. Unless…" Luxord trailed off.

"Unless what?" Elrena asked.

"Unless you have more than one heart." Lauriam finished.

"Huh?" she uttered.

"At the moment I was struck down my own heart was separated and created from the heart that was taken from the past. When I then faded away, my new heart stayed while my former heart returned to the past." Xemnas explained.

Lauriam realised now what made Xemnas so different. Instead of the cold, emotionless and condescending stare he was used to, the one that said 'I am your superior' which had made him as Marluxia want to overthrow him, there was now warmth there. Like he was genuinely glad to see them.

"And what? You got yourself a new body in the deal?" Elrena said.

"I ended up in a world of sky and light and was reunited with an old friend. He gave me a chance to recreate my body and return to the realm of light."

"And who is this 'friend' of yours?" Luxord questioned.

Xemnas shook his head.

"He is unable to leave the sleeping realm. He is no longer of any importance."

"As interesting as your story is, why are you here?" Lauriam demanded. "If you are looking for a new group to lead, you are not going to find it here."

Xemnas did something Lauriam had never seen him do. He hesitated before speaking, clenching his fist.

"I am aware that my treatment of you during my leadership was substandard. I took you all for granted. It is something I only realised once I had a heart of my own. If I can make amends for it, I desire to do so. It is why I followed my heart to this world."

Lauriam was conflicted. He never liked Xemnas and he seemed to have shared the same sentiment about him before. And that was the crux of it. It was before.

"So, you want to redeem yourself. For all the deplorable deeds you did as a Nobody." Luxord summarised.

The man was quick on the uptake and they shared a look. Elrena caught this look and made a face.

"Oh, you are kidding me." she groaned and Lauriam put his hand on her shoulder.

"Come now, Elrena. He is speaking from the heart and doing what it tells him to do. Who are we to deny him that?" he told her and she groaned even harder.

"You would give me a chance?" Xemnas eyebrows rose high. It was amusing to be able to get so much emotion from stoic, I-have-a-stick-up-my-ass, Xemnas.

"If you intend to make amends for your poor leadership, then you have to follow our rules." Lauriam spoke and Xemnas tensed.

"First rule." Elrena piped up. "Lauriam is the leader. If it doesn't suit you, buzz off."

Xemnas regarded her with a look that said he wasn't fully sure if that was a threat or not while she made a 'I am watching you' gesture towards him.

Elrena's antics were cheering Lauriam up and he smiled a little.

"You said you might be able to answer regarding Vanitas presence?" he asked.

"Yes. Vanitas was struck down. That is for certain. Ordinarily, he would return back from whence he came, but he could have found a way to stay. Just like I did." Xemnas informed.

"But how? I guess he didn't have some old friend willing to make him a body." Lauriam said.

"Perhaps, it has something to do with all the Pureblood Heartless in this world?" Luxord mused. "They are made of pure darkness and Vanitas is as well."

They looked to Xemnas, who shook his head.

"Although the darkness of this world would definitely catch his attention, it is highly improbable to be the reason for his resurgence." he answered.

"So we don't know how he could be here. Great. We still do not even know why we can not leave this world." Lauriam sighed.

"I might know why this world is cut off from the others." Xemnas spoke and Lauriam was surprised.

"Wait, you do?" Elrena asked and he nodded.

"Before I revealed myself, I investigated this issue on my own and I have a hypoposis. The barrier keeping us in is made of light. Outside of the natural barriers that worlds have there is only one other world that is able to block dark corridors with light. As long as it was not tampered with." he explained.

"What?" she replied.

Lauriam did not know what world he was speaking of, but Luxord's face lit up in understanding.

"Aah, do you mean to say this world has its own Cornerstone of Light?" Luxord asked.

"Indeed I do. It would seem that Disney Castle is not a singularity of such a phenomenon."

"Cornerstone of Light?" Lauriam asked.

"It is a sphere of light that resides in Disney Castle that shields that world from Heartless, Nobodies and practitioners of darkness." Xemnas frowned. "Peculiar then that it doesn't affect the Unversed." he added.

"It doesn't?" Lauriam asked, baffled that something that could keep out darkness couldn't keep out beings made out of negativity.

"When Xehanort used Vanitas against Terra, Ventus and Aqua, the Unversed were able to enter Disney Town."

"Great. So we are looking for a ball of light now?" Elrena complained.

"Not necessarily. That this world has their own Cornerstone of Light is only a hypoposis. And if it is as I think then it may not have the same form as Disney Castle's." Xemnas answered and she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"But if we are looking for an object that radiates a massive amount of light, our best lead then would be to follow the Heartless again." Lauriam stated.

"Fine." she agreed.

"Why are you three in this world?" Xemnas asked them.

"I followed someone's light here and the others followed after me."

"And you do not know who's light it was?"

"No." Lauriam answered.

He wasn't lying. The light that had called him hadn't been Strelitzia, but he wasn't comfortable with sharing news of his sister with Xemnas at this moment in time.

Xemnas frowned and looked away deep in thought.

"How peculiar."

"Do you have a place to stay?" Lauriam asked him.

"No, I do not."

Lauriam turned to the other two.

"Would it be alright if he stayed here?"

Elrena made a sour face and Luxord looked at her in amusement.

"I'm for it." Luxord answered.

"I only agree because I want to know where I have him." Elrena said sourly and glared at Xemnas over Lauriam's shoulder.

"Great." he turned back to Xemnas. "Do you want to stay here?"

"I would appreciate it." he answered.

"Then, how about me and Xemans go talk to Bisk to add a new room?" Luxord suggested.

"Good idea." Lauriam agreed and the two men left the apartment.

Elrena sighed.

"I'm gonna have to sleep with one eye open now." she dramatically declared.

"And a knife under your pillow?" Lauriam added.

She winked at him.

"You know it."

He laughed lightly, but quickly sobered.

"There is something that happened at U.A. That concerns the both of us."

"What? Someone else came back from the dead?" she jokes, but her smile dropped when Lauriam didn't laugh.

"Oh, for-. Who else has come back?! The geezer?! Xigbar?!"

"No. It's my sister. Strelitzia is alive."

Rio sneezed and she clutched her blanket around her tighter. She and all of 1-A were standing outside of USJ and being checked upon by the teachers and police. Apart from Midoriya's broken finger and some scratches and bruises, all of 1-A were unhurt and he had been the only one taken to the infirmary for his injury. She was happy none of her friends were seriously hurt but couldn't shake the feeling that it could have been much worse if not for Seraphim and his friends.

"Are you alright, Tanpopo-chan?" Tsu asked her as Sniper-sensei walked away after their check up and Rio shook her head.

"No, just freezing from the water. I hope I don't catch a cold, haha..."

Tsu gave her a thoughtful look and lowered her voice.

"Are you thinking about what Seraphim said about you not remembering him?"

Rio sputtered in surprise.

"Huh?! You heard him too?" she hurriedly whispered and Tsu nodded.

"I don't think Midoriya heard him, but I am sure Aizawa-sensei did since he was right next to you two."

Rio sighed.

"I don't know. I have never met him before, but..."

"He's still familiar to you?" Tsu guessed and Rio nodded, trying to remember.

"Man, I really do not want to think what would have happened if those vigilantes hadn't shown up." Kaminari blurted out.

"We are truly fortunate that she did." Yaoyorozu commented.

"I'm happy Trick was able to save Thirteen." Uraraka said. "It would have been hard getting any of us out to get the teachers if he hadn't trapped the villain and Thirteen had been injured."

"I still do not think we should heap such praise on those vigilantes." Iida cut in, shopping his hands around. "They use their quirks illegally!"

"Yeah, but did you see how that Seraphim guy sent all of those villains flying?" Sero asked, ignoring their class representative. "It was totally awesome."

"I wonder how they knew to be here at the right time?" Ojiro questioned. "If they weren't with the villains how would they have known about the attack?"

"Maybe they work undercover for the villains!" Kaminari suggested.

"No way!" Rio protested. "If not for Seraphim, both me and Midoriya would have broken arms, or worse, and Aizawa-sensei would still be severely injured."

"I do not think that Aizawa-sensei, Thirteen and All Might would have let them help out if they were suspicious." Tsu added and turned to a detective nearby.

"Excuse me. Will Midoriya be alright?" she asked and the whole class switched their attention to the detective.

Detective Tsukauchi gave her an understanding smile.

"Midoriya-kun has only a broken finger. With Recovery Girls help, it will heal in no time."

The class felt relieved knowing their friend was okay.

"As to how the Black Coat vigilantes knew to be here. They caught a villain who was supposed to join up for the attack and got it out of them before turning them in." he continued to their surprise.

Someone called the detective over and he excused himself. As he left, another policeman called out that they had apprehended a suspect and a group of policemen walked into view with Nomu in restraints. Rio couldn't help staring at Nomu. The darkness she had felt before wasn't gone but it wasn't active anymore and he looked again like how he had before it had been taken down the first time. Still, she was confused as to why she knew the feeling was of darkness and that it wasn't active.

The class were taken back to campus so they could leave their statements, switch out of their hero gear and into their school uniforms.

She thought about the USJ attack and about what Seraphim said the whole rest of the day when she was back home in her bed. Was she supposed to know what a Heartless was? Who Strelitzia was? Who Seraphim was? Her chest tightened with a feeling of sadness she didn't understand. Her mind didn't stop as she fell into a fitful sleep after all that had happened today. She woke up again at 3 am, feeling tired but unable to go back to sleep. She went to her kitchen and took a snack back to her room and started to look for information about the Black Coat vigilantes.

It didn't take long to find all the information there was. Most of it she had seen and heard for herself. There were three of them, all wearing the same kind of black coat. Two men and one woman called Seraphim, Trick and Lightning, in that order. They patrolled all around Mustafu, but most forums seemed to agree that they most often surveyed the dark corners of the city or the outskirts of hero and villain battles. What their quirks actually were was highly debated since they seemed to have several quirks or incredibly versatile ones.

Rio thought back to how Seraphim had created a shockwave, whirlwinds of petals, flying shooting flowers, a knockout counter, blocked Nomu's punch, created a clone of himself and even teleported. He did have a versatile quirk, if it only was one quirk. For some reason it made her think about her own quirk, Triforce. She could summon and use fire, ice and electricity. Todoroki was the first person she had met who could use more than one element, even if he for some reason wasn't using both of them. The doctors were even more surprised since her quirk has no relations to her parents' quirks.

Looking around more about the Black Coats didn't give any fruit beyond some fan forums and accounts of people being saved by the vigilantes from villains who were described as "shadow monsters". The shadow monsters definitely sounded like the Heartless she had seen fighting her classmate. More accounts of the Heartless gave no more information that she didn't already know and Rio rolled back from her desk, rested her head back against her back rest and looked up at the ceiling. Heartless. Darkness. Seraphim. Strelitzia. Why was this bothering her? Why did she need to know more? For all she knew, he could just be mistaking her for someone else, or maybe he was crazy. Still, there was this nagging feeling in her chest. Like she was missing something. Shaking her head she sighed.

"I am going to give myself a migraine." she said and looked at the time.

It said 4.03 in the morning and she sighed again. Maybe some training would clear her thoughts. It wasn't like she had school today after the attack. And maybe after the curfew ended she could take a run and see if she ran into Seraphim so she could ask him what his questions meant.

Xemnas has always been my favorite KH villain, and his final dialog in KH3 just tugged at my hearts strings, just like with Lauriam. I hope my explanation for how he is in BNH makes sense to KH lore. If not, I would be happy to hear some feedback :D

I am a little unsure of how the Cornerstone of Light in Disney Castle works, even after reading the wiki. It is a little unclear if it only protects the castle specifically or if the Unversed are special in being able to pass its protection.

Next update: Monday the 9th of May