6H:Wow it's chapter 20 already. This is really amazing.And I'm getting so many awsome reveiws! Yay! I did a pic for this story, and it's my first time drawing to draw all the KH characters. The amazing thing is it turned out pretty good! Even though I started drawing it at like eleven at night. I'm debating whether to color it or not. I don't want to screw it up, so I might just leave it as is. Well, here's the next chapter.
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Kingdom Hearts-Shattered Fragments
Fragment 20-People behind the Masks
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Cedeile slowly opened her eyes. Her head hurt, her leg was killing her, and something was on her hand...She slowly sat up and looked at her one hand. Ryu's hand was clasped tightly around it, even though he was out cold. She tried to pull hers free without waking him up. When she succeded, she let out a sigh of relief. She certainly didn't want people to get ideas.
She looked around at her surroundings. They were outside the mayor's house, which was restored to normal. The sun shone down on the land, and all was silent. Aru was over a few feet, laying on ground. She seemed okay though, as she was slightly moving in her sleep. Cedeile turned the other way to look when she saw a group of masked people coming.
"Oh damn!" she yelled. She started shaking Ryu. "Hey, Ryu, wake up! The masked people are coming to kill us!" when this didn't work, she started picking up small pebbles and throwing them at Aru to try to get her up so that she could save them in time. When she started to come to, though, it was too late, and the people had arrived.
"There they are!" cried the girl leading them.
"Wait! I can explain!" Cedeile cried, trying to delay their inevitable deaths.
"These are the brave heros who destoryed the monster and saved us from those terribled demons!" she explained to the crowd.
"What? You're not...gonna kills us because we aren't wearing masks?" The girl leading the crowd shook her head. Then she turned back to the crowd.
"Now, let get them inside! They all have injuries that need to be taken care of." she said. Some men in masks came and lifted the three, bringing them into the house.
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The girl, who turned out to be Benida, saw to it that their injuries were taking care of. Cedeile was taken care of quickly, so Benida led her to the parlor where the whole family was gathered. The mayor and his real wife had returned, and were sitting together on a couch. Their five children stood around them, including Benida. Cedeile sat down in a chair facing them, reesting her injuried leg.
"Thank you so much for destroying that horrible monster and saving the town." The mayor said. "That terrible thing had my wife and myself sealed away."
"We never thought we'd ever make it out of there." his wife added, speaking very calmly.
"You know...it's just somethng me and my friends do." Cedeile said.
"If those things weren't the curse, then what were they?" Benida asked. Cedeile swallowed hard.
"Well...If I tell you, please don't kill me."
"Why would we kill our hero?" The mayor asked.
"Because part of the name of those monsters is your forbidden word." All of them understood instantly.
"You are from another world, are you not?" the mayor's wife asked. Cedeile nodded. "Then speak as if you were explaining it to those in your world. There will be no penalty."
"Okay...there are called the heartless..." they all noticably cringed, "...because they don't have hearts. They feed on those who do, and they lose their hearts, in turn, becoming heartless. The invade the worlds, searching for the keyhole that leads to the heart of the world. If they take that, then they can plunge the world into darkness. Ironicly enough, my weapon is called the Heartblade. Apparently, I have the purest heart in the universe, and am able to purify the heartless because of it. We're also hunting the fragments, which can give power to the heartless. When they are all gathered, something happens, but no one is sure what. We came here seaking out a blacksmith named Silver Eye, because Ryu's sword was broken and Silver Eye was the only one who could fix it. But then we detected fragments, so Aru and I came here and...well, you pretty much know the rest. And that's my story." There was a uneasy silence that followed.
"W-well...that is quite a story..."Mrs. McFuzz said nervously.
"But you have saved our town! That requires the highest of honors for you!" The mayor exclaimed.
"Wait! My friends, will they be alright?"
"Why don't you look for yourself?" Benida said, smiling. Cedeile looked to the doorway to see Ryu and Aru standing there.
"You can't get rid of us that easily, Cedeile." Ryu said, smirking. Cedeile jumped up, ignoring the pain in her leg, and ran to them, getting them both in a relieved hug.
"I'm just so glad you guys are okay!" she said. Aru laughed softly.
"Of course we are. Because of you, that is." she said.
"Yeah, Cedeile. If you hadn't of come up with that new attack, then we'd all be dead!" Ryu added. Cedeile released her friends and smiled at them.
"But I had alot of help. If you guys hadn't been there, then I would've been dead way before I ever got to the top." They all laughed at that, and the family smiled. They all sat down, the family ready to be bombarded with questions they didn't normally have to anwser.
"So, why don't you beleive in hearts?" Cedeile asked. The mayor sighed.
"Back in the time of our third mayor, a terrible war was fought over hearts. When the war was over, the town was in ruins and almost everyone was dead. Never again did we want such a war to happen, so we decided to never believe in hearts again and banned the word to ever be spoken. We thought if we stopped believing, then our hearts would disappear."
"Well, that's stupid."
"Huh?"
"Cedeile..."Ryu warned.
"Just because you don't beleive in something, doesn't mean it goes away. It's still there." The family thought about this for a moment.
"You know...she's right..." Benida admitted.
"Instead of thinking they don't exist, you should believe in the light in your hearts. Because all our hearts are connected."
"Okay, enough with that." Ryu interjected. "I want to know why you all wear masks."
"It's because...well, in the time of our third mayor someone started a silly rumor about a curse that if you caught it would destroy your face. No one believed it at first...but one day, someone saw those...h-h-h..."Benida's voice stammered, stuck on the word.
"Heartless?" Cedeile offered. She nodded.
"Yes. They came, and we thought it was the curse. So ever since then, we have worn these masks, and soon it just became our culture."
"I see. So you guys are really just like normal people after all." Aru said.
"But, there's still some unfinished work here." Ryu said, standing. "The fragments haven't been found, and the keyhole is still open."
"Do any of you know where the keyhole is?" Aru asked. Benida stood, and walked over to the wall, on which was displayed sevral masks.
"I know where it is." she said. She lifted one off the wall and held it for them to see. "It's this one with the key shapped eye." she said. Cedeile looked at it. The right eye, was indeed, the shape of a key.
"Benida, how did you ever?" the mayor started to ask. She smiled at her family.
"It's simple, papa. You see, I always used to play in here when I was little. So I was always looking at these masks. One day, I just happened to notice this one. When the warriors talked about the keyhole, I just took a guess that this one was the keyhole." Cedeile stepped towards it, summoning the heartblade to her hand.
"Then let's purify it!" she pointed the staff at it and a light beamed from the end of it. The mask was engulfed in a globe of light. Benida looked at the light curiously. "It'll protect it from the heartless for now. You should be okay until the keyblade master can come and really finish the job."
"Now, what was it you were saying about fragments?" Mrs. McFuzz asked. Ryu took out the bottle and showed them the fragments inside.
"Ever seen these before?" he asked.
"Oh...well...I think they're on the weather vane on the roof." The mayor anwsered.
"How high up on the roof?" Aru asked.
"On the top...you know, the highest point on the house!"
"WHAT?" Cedeile screamed. "We've gotta climb up this damn house all over again?"
"Relax, Cedeile." Ryu glared at her to shut up. "This time it will be consierably eaiser."
"Ryu, my leg is shot, you're just a badly injured, and that would make Aru the only one able enough the climb up there." Cedeile explained. "Maybe we should go back to Traverse Town for awhile and-"
"Cedeile, we worked this hard and we're just gonna leave the fragments? The heartless won't leave this world if there's still something to gain!" Ryu agrued.
"Will the two of you stop?" Aru cut in. "I'll climb up there, it's no big deal."
"Are you sure, Aru? You don't have to."
"I'll be fine."
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The whole faimly stood outside, as well as Cedeile and Ryu, and they watched Aru scale the house. It didn't take her long to reach the point where the weather vane stood. She slowly approaced it and then began searching for the fragments. Gently running her hands back and forth over the iron structure, she quickly found the first few fragments.
"How many so far?" Ryu yelled up to her.
"I've got five!" Aru yelled back.
"Five? Holy hell! I never thought there'd be this many!"Cedeile cried in excitement. Aru still serached when suddenly she heard a sound. Her head shot up and she met face to face with a shadow heartless. It jumped up into the air and came down upon the weathervane. Aru fell backwards to try and avoid it, but went flying off the roof.
"Look!"
"Aru's in trouble! Ryu, go save her!"
"Me? Why should I?"
"Just go! Ryu sighed as he jumped to catch Aru. "What happened?" he asked her, setting her down.
"A heartless came and grabbed the other two fragments. Sorry guys, I could only get five."
"Hey, five is a good number. That brings us to eight!" Cedeile said, proud of her adding skills.
"We have nine fragments, Cedeile. NINE." Ryu corrected.
"Oh. Well, now we can go back to Traverse Town!" They began to walk back to the town.
"Goodbye, brave warriors! We'll never forget what you have done for us!" The family called. The trio waved to them until you could no longer see the family, but only the massive house. The sun set in the distance, and the sky glowed beautiful colors over the town. The people had never seen such a sunset in the many years they had lived here. The mayor and his family even dared to lift their masks to watch the beautiful sight.
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6H:Well, that's it for this chapter. It's back to Traverse Town.
Anaretsu:I'll make sure I'm not here for that.
