Hi! This is my first shot at a fanfiction, so bear with me. This first chapter is sort of just a prologue to the actual fanfiction, so read up and enjoy! I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Chain of Memories or any oftheir premade characters. Rika and Leiko are copyrighted to me, Kheno is copyrighted to my best friend Sai, and Shina is copyrighted to both of us, because she was made up based on both of our different ideas.

oooPrologueooo

"Bye, Dad."

"Bye, Leiko."

The door slammed and was locked tight.

This is the twenty-first time that she had been left alone in her home while her father was off on his "business trips", and judging by the average of how long he's been gone for the last twenty times, he's not going to be back for another six months or so.

The five-year-old sighed and brushed her black hair out of her eyes.

"See you whenever…" she muttered.

It was hard coming up with new things to keep herself entertained. It seemed she had done every element of fun that could possibly be contained in all the thirteen floors of the castle. You name it, she's done it. The only things she hasn't done are the things that deface property or damage the property, and those she didn't plan on doing quite soon.

Sighing at the trip, Leiko went back up the thirteen flights of stairs to her bedroom, which, unlike the other rooms, was a comfortable shade of violet, rather than the white marble of everything else.

She climbed up onto the marble windowsill and stared out at the vast countryside. There was one gray road that lead up to the castle, but below it was a black abyss. Her father had told her to stay off the path, for fear of her falling down into the blackness below, but it wasn't like he cared.

If he really cared about what happens to me, he wouldn't be leaving me here for six months at a time…but this time, I'm not going to let him get away.

Leiko went quietly under her bed and pulled out a long rope of bed sheets that were tied together. She picked up the end, crossed the room, and threw the end that was in her hand out the window.

Soon enough, the rope was just barely touching the ground below.

Leiko held her breath and swung herself out the window, climbing down the crooked walls of the castle as if she were climbing a mountain.

After a good, solid twenty minutes, Leiko's feet touched the ground below. She sighed and smiled at her bedroom window, towering at least a hundred and fifty feet above, if not more. Looking right and left to see if anyone was watching her, she quickly took off on the gray road.

She panted as she huffed along the long path to what seemed to be nowhere.

Crud…I should've packed something to eat…

Her stomach growled in reply.

She slowed to a jog, then a trot, then a walk, and soon she was just standing still without a clue. She sat down to think.

Turning around would make the entire way completely useless.

She looked all around. Nothing but black abyss and at least another mile of gray path.

What was the whole point of this again? She sarcastically thought to herself.
Soon, though, she had made up her mind. She got up and continued forward for at least another hour, before the path finally let up onto a green hill with a dirt road.

You'd think that she would have sprung forward and kissed the ground, but she froze in fear. There was a group of seven tall figures in black cloaks, all talking softly to each other, but what surprised Leiko was the eighth member of the group, a silver-haired child about her age.

She couldn't distinguish their gender by the back of their head, but the child was struggling to get away from the grip of a taller man wrapped in what appeared to be red bandages. The poor child would try to jerk away, but then would be pulled back painfully by the man.

Leiko felt anger boil up inside her as she stared at the child trying to get away. She just simply had to do something about it. Searching the ground, she picked up a large stick and summoned all the courage she could muster before throwing it at the back of the bandaged man's head and shouting, "Hey!"

The man took the stick at full speed in the designated spot and fell over, letting go of the child who whirled around to face Leiko. The child turned out to be a girl, but there was fear implanted in her wide eyes. Quickly, she ran over to Leiko and grabbed her wrist, dragging her further down the road.

"I don't know where you came from or how you got here," Said the girl, looking back at Leiko for a minute, "But you don't understand how dangerous that man is."

"You don't make very good first impressions, do you?" Said Leiko, jerking away her hand and running along beside the girl.

"First impressions aren't what I'm worried about right now. We need to get far, far away from here."

"Then we're both going the same way." Leiko said, not very happy to be running again, but trying not to look tired. "I'm running away."

"Me too! Where are you running away from?" Said the girl, continuing to run as fast as ever.

"Home. I live just down the road from here at the castle."

"You mean," Her sneakers skidded as the girl jerked to a stop. "Castle Oblivion?"

"Yeah! That's the place." Leiko stopped also. "Why?"

The girl looked down and put a small hand on her arm. "I hate to break this to you, but that place might be in ruins by the time you get back."

Leiko's eyes widened. "What in the world are you talking about?"

"Those men back there," Began the girl. "They're searching for a man named Kheno. I don't know how or why, but obviously, he did something and they're going to…well…you know."

"They're at the wrong place." Leiko's gaze shrunk back down to normal size. "I have never heard of this 'Kheno' guy."

The girl was relieved too. "That's good news." She sighed and smiled, looking back up at Leiko.

"Let's keep going just in case those jerks catch up to us." Said Leiko, continuing to walk along.

"All right." The girl followed suit.

"I don't really think I caught your name." Said Leiko, looking over at her.

"It's Rika." She said, fixing her gaze straight ahead.

"I'm Leiko."

And the two walked along, telling each other the stories of their lives and both thinking the same thing.

This is the start of a beautiful friendship.

Did you like it? Did you? I hope you did, because there's a lot more chapters where that one came from. I'll update again today! YIPEE!