Kingdom Hearts

The Wandering Keyblade Master

This story takes place just after Sora seals Traverse Town. There are several changes to the story line, mainly some events happening at earlier times.

Summary:

Things seem to be looking up for everyone as Sora continues to seal the keyholes. But when a black cloaked figure wanders into Traverse Town, things go crazy. Parings: Sora/Kairi, Aerith/Cloud, Yuffie/OC

Chapter 1: The Wanderer

It was just another day at Traverse Town, err, night at Traverse Town and things were pretty good. Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith were always there to protect the people from any Heartless that came into the first district, the world's keyhole had been sealed, and fewer people were arriving at Traverse Town, assuming that fewer worlds were being destroyed, that is. But little do they know that things are about to get a lot harder for them. Yuffie and Aerith had just finished their lunch at the café and were about to go shopping (Aerith's suggestion).

"Hurry up Yuffie, if we miss this sale it's all your fault if you get hurt." Aerith said.

"I know, I know. Not everyone is as obsessed with shopping as you are. Though I do admit I'm surprised to see you this excited over an accessory sale." Yuffie replied.

"Of course I'm excited, they got new items in that could really help you guys in battle, do you think I like seeing my friends suffer?" Aerith asked.

"No, of course not. You do act and prove that you care about others, unlike Squall who acts like an asshole." Yuffie said.

"Yuffie! Don't say that, he may be cold hearted jerk at times, but he does care about others."

"Yeah right, I won't believe that until I see it."

"(sigh) What am I going to do with you child?"

"I don't know Mom what are you going to do with me?"

"Don't start that again Yuffie, calling me Mom makes me feel old."

"Yeah, kinda like you calling me child makes me feel like a little kid."

"Okay, okay, I'll stop if you stop. Deal?"

"Deal."

With that they set off to the accessory shop. Just after they entered the shop, the entrance to Traverse Town opened. A cloaked figure entered as the door closed. He slowly walked over to the café and sat down, although it appeared as if he was holding something from under his cloak for support. Barely a minute later, a waitress approached him.

"Hi, you look new here. Anything I can get ya?" she asked.

"Some water, please." He replied.

"Ya sure that's all you want hun, we have coffee, sodas, hot chocolate, milk, chocolate milk, juice, root beer, anything?" she asked.

"…On second thought, some chocolate milk sounds good." He said slowly.

"One chocolate milk coming right up!" The waitress said and hurried off to the kitchen. While waiting for his order, the cloaked figure took a high-potion from his cloak and quickly drank it.

"That's more like it." He mumbled. A minute later, the waitress came back with a tall glass of chocolate milk and a straw.

"Here ya go hun, that'll be 5 munny please." She said, after setting his drink down. He paid for his drink and the waitress left. He sat there thinking about where he was going to go next after he was done with his business there, occasionally taking a sip from his glass. After that he left for the item shop to restock on his supplies. Just as he entered the item shop, the door to the accessory shop opened and Yuffie and Aerith walked out.

"This new duo defense ring should at least double you defensive power Yuffie. I told you this was a great idea." Aerith was saying.

"You were right, this thing would have been really expensive if we had missed the sale." Yuffie replied. "I wonder what Squall is doing right now, I'd a thought he would have jumped at the chance to get new equipment, right?"

"I think he mentioned that he was going to be in the secret waterway, practicing some long sword technique." Aerith said.

"He's still working on that? But he already mastered it 2 days ago. Probably trying to get the feel of it, that sword did looked hard to swing around, but knowing Leon, he'll be able to so swing it like his regular gunblade." Yuffie replied. "I've already fully mastered my new shuriken technique. Who knows, maybe when he sees it he'll actually say something remotely nice."

"It's possible, after all miracles do happen." Aerith said. She then mumbled "So long as it's not something just slapped together."

"Hey what's that suppose to mean!"

"You heard that?"

"Yeah, I am the Great Ninja Yuffie after all."

"…Get over yourself..."

"WHAT!"

"Forget it, lets just go back to the hotel. I think I'm going to take a nap anyways."

"…Fine."

They were about to head back to the hotel when the door to the item shop opened and the cloaked figure walked out. (From now on I'll call him ?)

"Hey, you new here?" Yuffie asked. ? said nothing and just walked past them to the stairs. "You could say something, ya know." ? just kept on walking toward the second district door. "That guy's being a bigger jerk than Leon is." At this the figure stopped for a moment, shook his head, and went into the second district. It was as the door closed that the entrance door burst open when a large group of heartless barreled through. To be precise, 10 soldiers, 6 new heartless with bulky blue armor and dog faced shield growling like crazy (Defenders), and 4 sorcerer like heartless (Wizards). (Only saying new because it's new to the Traverse Town gang.) "What the? Aerith go get Squall, these guys look tough."

"What? Your not seriously going to fight them, are you?"

"Take a look at that." Aerith looked at where Yuffie pointed to see the heartless chasing people all over the place. "If I sit around waiting for Squall to get here, these people will lose their hearts and that's something I'd rather not have on my conscious." She then gave an almost sad smile. "Besides, the Great Ninja Yuffie should be able to hold them off until backup arrives." Yuffie said.

"…Be careful Yuffie." Aerith said, hugging Yuffie, with tears in her eyes. "Sorry about being a smart mouth back there."

"Same here." With that Yuffie readied her shurikens. "Hurry up and get Squall."

"Right." Aerith said, letting go and starting up the stairs.

"Well, time to see if my new move is any good." Yuffie said, charging up her magic into her shuriken and jumping into the fray. She launches it and after a lot of bouncing around it kills the 10 soldiers. "Alright! Ten down, Ten to go." She then started throwing her regular shuriken at a Defender only to see them bounce harmlessly to the ground. "(Gulp) I guess the real fight begins no-" She's cut off as the offended Defender rammed full speed into her, sending her crashing into the wall. She let out a cry of pain as she slid down to the ground.

Unfortunately for her, these heartless had at least some amount of brains. The Defender proceeded to grab Yuffie by the head, lifting her off the ground. She struggled against it, but it was too strong for her. It then swung around in a circle and flung her into the café. Also unfortunately for her???'s glass from before was still on the table, and ended up breaking on her back as she flew into the café. After a few seconds in the air, she hit the brick wall hard, on her head, by the way. Between the few tables and chairs she went through, the glass in her back, and finally the impact with the wall, she was left in a bloody heap on the floor unconscious.

As the Defender was about to charge at her, a bright red light slammed into it, sending it a small ways away. At that moment, all the heartless stopped what they were doing and looked at the scene as it took place. The light came from , who was standing on the roof of the accessory shop. He fazed out of view only to reappear in front of the café. He held out both his arms in front of him, and two twin style swords came out into his hands (Think of the Gilded sword from Zelda Majora's mask). The only difference between the two was that one was completely gold in color, while the other was completely sea green in color.

"Your fight is with me now." ? stated before charging the Defender he had attacked. The Defender, still getting up, quickly raised his shield for defense, expecting him to charge him dead on. When nothing happened, the Defender lowered its shield to find nothing in front of it. It was just then that a sword burst through its chest. ? had jumped over it and attacked it from behind. It burst into hp and munny balls, and also a giant red case. "Next."

Two Defenders charged him together, only to go straight through him. Looking back they saw it was only an after image. They then heard a whistle and turned to their right just in time to see ? come flying at them through the air, rapidly spinning around with his swords pointed outward. He sliced through them with relative ease as they burst into the usual goodies, only this time one of them had a large blue case while the other had another red one. It was around this time that Leon and Aerith arrived.

"Who is that guy, and what kind of heartless are those?" Leon asked.

"Don't know either of those, but where is Yuffie?" Aerith said while searching for her friend. It was only a moment later… "OH MY GOD, YUFFIE!" she shrieked seeing her in the café and running to her.

"…Yuffie…" Leon whispered. Just at a glance you could tell she was in bad shape. He tightened his grip on his gunblade, and turned to face what remained of the heartless, 4 Wizards by the way. "You Bastards, you'll pay for this, do you hear me, YOU'LL PAY!" With that, he charged the two nearest wizards.

They both shot a magic attack at him, one flame and one ice. This proved fruitless as he dodged them with ease and swung his gunblade in an ark slash, hitting them both with a fiery blade, but to his surprise they glowed red for a moment and acted like his attack didn't do anything. "What the F-" was all he could say as the two Wizards each fired a ball of flame at his chest. The result was him being blown back into the wall. He gave a small grunt as he landed and very slowly started to get up.

Just as the two Wizards were about to attack again, the other two Wizards collided with them, knocking them all onto the ground. ? landed just in front of them. He pointed one of his swords at them.

"Gravitron!" He yelled. Suddenly a circle of black energy came down upon them, instantly crushing and destroying them all. With the Heartless beaten ? retracted his swords into his cloak and was about to leave when he heard a loud sob.

"Yuffie! Yuffie wake up! Yuffie! YUFFIE!" a hysterical Aerith yelled out as she tried to wake Yuffie up. Yuffie's back was dripping of blood, glass embedded into her skin. Her stomach had a big bruise on it, the center of it bleeding. Her hair was also ruffled up and had some blood in it to. Looking at the poor girl ??? walked over to her and knelt down.

"…Let me help." He said. He took Yuffie by the shoulders and gently rolled her over. He then placed her down on the ground on her stomach. With that he stood up, stepped back, and placed hand out in front of him. "Ytivarg." He murmured. An orb of black energy surrounded Yuffie and lifted the glass out of her back. Guiding it with his hand ??? moved the shards of glass over to the side and released the spell. Carefully, he turned Yuffie onto her back. "Curatron." He said as he held his hand on her shoulder. A green light emitted from his hand and traveled through Yuffie, instantly healing her. Letting go of her he turned to Aerith.

"Your friend should be alright, she'll need to rest for a while though." ? said.

"Thank you" Aerith said, "But who are?"

"Call me … Zero." ? said. He placed a hand on Aerith's shoulder and murmured something. A green light entered Aerith, she suddenly learned the spell Curaga. "A gift. One that should be useful." He then pulled a small box out of his cloak and handed it to Aerith. "Give these to Yuffie when she wakes up. If she's going to fight those heartless, she'll need more power than she had today." With that said, Zero walked out of the wreaked café and entered the third district.