AkureiShinzo: Finally, I get to write again! Sorry it took…o forget it! I don't own KH or several of the animes in this fic. Please R&R!
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Chapter 20: Strange…
"What do I do?" asked Zeero to himself as he stared at the world gate. "What am I suppose to do?! If I leave I…"
Zeero began to pace around in circles, what was he to do? He knew the circumstances surrounding Sonraku, but wasn't there another way they could settle this? No, this was the only was, if Sonraku was to remain this way… Even if the Heartless were defeated Sonraku would never be the same again, not if they let it remain this way.
"Sigh," muttered Zeero as he sat down onto the ground. "Zeero thinks his brain was not meant for such stress…"
"I didn't even know you had one," said a voice.
"Very funny Zen! For your information I do have a brain! Though I don't use it very often, but I still have one! So there!"
"Strange isn't Zen," said Sin. "He's not a fighter, yet he's considering to fight the …"
"You're useless," said Zen. "So leave! You'll cause less trouble for everyone."
"I…I…."
"You know what you are… you don't have to…"
"I'm going to stay!"
" Then you'll have to fight me first…"
"?!"
"If you can manage to hit me once, then you'll be deemed worthy… Although I highly doubt it…"
"…"
Riku joined up with Yami once again and the two of them began to search for Zeero. Where that demon had run off to they didn't know. Suddenly, they saw a group of people surrounding the area near the world gate. They rushed over to see what was going on.
"Zeero!" cried out Riku as he saw his friend thrown against the wall.
Zeero slammed into the wall and slid down into a trashcan. When his head popped back up, his eyes were two swirls and he had a banana peel on top of his head. He shook it off and, with some difficulty, got out of the trashcan.
"Is that the best you can do?" asked Zen, in a bored tone. "This is such a shame…"
Zeero let out a low growl and started to transform into his demon form, Zen gave a smirk.
"Now things are getting a bit more interesting…"
A shadow surrounded Zen, and when it cleared, Zen the Devil Fox showed his true form, an eight-tailed kitsune! Zeero, in his demon form charged at Zen and tried to get a swipe at his, Zen just moved to the right and Zeero missed him by a few inches. Zeero crash landed onto the ground and slid into a lamppost. Slowly, he got up and shook his head.
"Zeero's too inexperienced to fight against Zen," mutter Sin. "I don't even know why he's even trying…"
"What are you talking about?" demanded Riku.
"You haven't noticed that our kind has already left this place?"
"Your kind?"
"The hearts of Sonraku are leaving, in case you haven't noticed…"
"Why? Why are you all leaving?"
"You'd understand if… you don't need to know…"
"Know what?"
"About the Plague…"
"The Plague?"
There conversation came to a sudden stop when Zeero once again charged at Zen and leapt towards him. Zen leapt up and knocked Zeero back. Zeero landed with a thud and tons of new bruises.
"Zeero!" called out Riku.
"Get up!" yelled Yami.
'Yes, Zeero,' said Zen telepathically to Zeero. 'If you think you can…'
Zeero charged Zen and Zen once again moved over to the right, making Zeero fall back on the ground again. But as Zen turned to face Zeero, blood suddenly came out of his right foreleg! Across his foreleg was a set of claw marks…
"What?!" exclaimed Sin in surprise.
'That idiot,' thought Zen. 'He couldn't have done this on purpose, there is no way he could have predicted my movement!'
Zeero got up and then fell back down as he slipped on a banana peel. Zen was still in shock that such an idiot managed to get a hit on him! How could this have happened!? It had to be dumb luck! That stupid kitsune!
Just then Zeero came to his senses and tackled Zen to the ground, but Zen easily regained his balance and pinned the squirming five-tailed fox-demon to the ground. Then Zen returned to his half-demon form and walked towards Sin, leaving a very battered up Zeero on the ground, twitching.
"Let's go," said Zen as he and Sin began to walk away.
"Huh? What's…?" asked Riku.
"A deal's a deal," replied Zen.
"Zeero," said Riku. "Are you okay?"
"Oh, I'm fine," answered Zeero. "But I don't know about Zeero…"
"Need a hand?" asked a new voice. Riku and Yami looked around there surroundings, but saw no one. "Up here."
They looked up to see a sixteen-year old boy, with silver hair tied back into a ponytail. The most astonishing feature the guy had were the two wings on his back. They were silver, bird-like wings that shone brightly in the night. The guy also had a golden ring that floated a few inches above his head, but it seemed to be slanted a bit…
"My name's Akio," said the boy as he floated down. "You must be the Keyblade Master."
"I…" stuttered Riku. "I, I think so…"
"What do you mean? Never mind, here, let me help your friend."
Akio knelt down and held his hands over Zeero, they glowed with a silver aura for a moment and when the light vanished, Zeero was completely healed!
"Thanks!" chirped Zeero in his usual silly manner.
"No problem," replied Akio. "By the way, are you guys planning to travel to the other worlds any time soon?"
"Uh… yeah," answered Riku. "I suppose…"
"Then you should check out this strange world, I'll mark it on your map. You might need this as well to get there."
Riku received a heart gem from Akio.
"Are you still in doubt?" asked the angel.
"What do you mean?" asked Riku.
"About who you are… You think that because of what you had done, who you were in the past…"
"…I…"
"There is no need to worry. You are not the only one with this doubt. You have both the potential to destroy and save, so what will it be?"
"I…want to restore…everything to the way it was… I want to help my friends… I want them to forgive…"
"There is no heart without darkness…just as there is no darkness without light…"
"There is so much I don't understand…"
"(smiles) Don't worry about it too much, you'll give yourself a headache!"
"I don't understand…the reason for all of this…"
"Just because you don't know the reason of something… doesn't necessarily mean that the reason isn't there…"
"I guess…"
"Well, good luck! I will be seeing you around I suppose…"
Akio spread his wings out and flew off into the night sky. Riku and the others stared after the angel as he disappeared into the darkness. A feather floated down, and Riku caught it in his hand, how strange, it was as if this feather was giving him something he hadn't felt in a long time…hope…
"There are so many different people here…"mumbled Riku.
"Zeero," said Yami. "I think you've had enough sake for one day…"
"But this is only the twentieth bottle…"
"Hand it over…"
"No… (begins to chug down the rest of the sake)"
"ZEERO!"
"IT'S MINE! GET YOUR OWN!"
"Oh boy," sighed Riku, he started up Sieg and they took off in the wolf-type Zoid.
After what seemed like hours, the strange world Akio had spoke of came into view. It looked like sphere that had been chewed up by worms, little by little, until it slowly came into ruin.
"What kind of a place is this?" asked Yami.
"I'm not sure…" answered Riku. "Let's go down and see."
Both Riku and Yami were too busy trying to figure out what was wrong with this world to notice Zeero looking a bit strange. The look of pure terror was on his face, he was quivering in his seat.
'Oh no…' thought the fox-demon.
Finally, they landed on this strange world, but it was very hard to since this world was so badly rotted. The trio got out of the Zoid and looked about their surroundings. Now that they had a chance to get a gook look of this world up close, they noticed that this world was indeed very strange. The buildings looked as though they had been through an earthquake, some of the buildings were see through, others were like images on a broken television set.
"What is this place?" asked Riku.
"A broken world…" said Zeero in a drunken tone. "A fragment of what it once was…."
"Zeero?" asked Yami as he and Riku turned to face him. "Are you alright?"
"To think that you've actually found one… my, it looks very interesting, doesn't it?"
"I think you've had one too many bottles of sake, Zeero," said Riku.
"This world does many strange things to hearts, did you know? That is because this world…it is not a whole…"
"Huh?"
"It is broken, it has fragmented a long time ago… Along with the hearts that had lived with it… Now the souls wonder around worlds like this, lost… Those who are not fully whole, will have strange things happen to them when they are in such worlds…"
"What do you mean that this world is broken!?" asked Riku.
"The Plague," muttered Zeero, who looked at the sky like a drunkard. "The Plague must have struck here as well…"
"What is… the Plague?" asked Yami.
Even though Riku and Yami knew that Zeero had drunk a lot on their journey to this world, they could see clearly that something was not right. The fox-demon was not acting normally. Was what he saying about this world true? Zeero turned his back to them and hunched his back as though he was a hunchback. Riku reached out his hand.
"Zeero…" he said as he reached out his hand. "Are you…"
"Don't touch me!" snapped Zeero as he whirled around suddenly.
He glared at the two of them; Riku noticed that Zeero's kind eyes were replaced with those of a monster's. Just like before… at the Coliseum… But after a few seconds, Zeero's eyes changed, not back into their original, kind look, but into a daze kind of look, as though he was in a trance.
"You should explore this place some more," muttered Zeero, walking away slowly with his head facing the ground. "You may find something…very interesting… I need more sake…sake…"
"I'm getting worried about, Zeero," said Yami. "Something isn't right…"
"Yeah," agreed Riku. "Something's really isn't right here…"
Remember this advice Keybearer. Sometimes to find the light, you must look within the deepest part of the darkness…
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Akurei-Shinzo: Wonder what's up with Zeero… To find out, keep on reading!
Next Chapter Preview: As Riku and Yami wonder around this strange world, they come across a young girl, who was chained to a cross. But something else seems to have found this strange girl as well, and it seems that it does not wish for her awakening! Next chapter: Ai…
She is my love and joy, my treasure…my light…My child, my sweet child…If only if there was a cure for this accursed Plague…then…just maybe…just maybe…
-Herz