Kingdom Hearts

The Wandering Keyblade Master

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Squaresoft, Disney, Final Fantasy, etc. I apologizes all who are even remotely insulted by this fanfic too. All original ideas belong to me, those who want to use any of my characters must ask permission first, and probably will get it.

Chapter 2: Making Friends

As the doors closed behind him, Zero walked toward the door with the flame symbol on it. He encountered some shadows and soldiers along the way, they were about to attack him when he turned to them. They stopped dead in their tracks, looking at him for a moment, and then vanished in a puff of black smoke. With that said and done he walked through the doorway that led to Merlin's house. After crossing over the water he enters the house.

Merlin: "Zero, I've been expecting you. It's unusual for you to be late."

Zero: "A couple of Defenders and Wizards came to town, along with some soldiers. Some ninja girl took care of the soldiers with ease, but was nearly killed by the Defender she attacked. I had to step in. Then some guy with what looked like a gunblade went to attack two Wizards, but instead ended up making them stronger. Had to save him to.

Merlin: I see. I do hope Miss Yuffie is alright. Leon can handle a little pain, I've seen him injured. Come and sit down, take your cloak off, stay awhile.

Zero does take his cloak off, walks up, and sits at the table. Zero has spiked up goldish-blond hair, sea green eyes, and a muscular frame. One long strand of his hair fell down to his face, over his right eye, in an arch. But the one thing most noticeable was the cross shaped scar on his left cheek. He looked to be 17 to 18 years old, and also tall. He wore a gold sleeveless shirt, some gold and baggy sweat pants, and green cloth belt around his waist. His swords were on either side of his waist, in sheaths attached to his belt. (Think SSJ2 Gohan in the Cell Games Sage of DBZ, only a little older.).

Zero: "The heartless are growing stronger, and some have even begun developing brain cells."

Merlin: "Yes, I know. You also have a dilemma on your hands correct?"

Zero: "Yeah, Maleficent can easily track my movements. I don't get much time to search for the keyholes, much less defend them."

Merlin: "Here, take this. It may not be able to stop Maleficent from tracking you completely, but it should help improve your ability to hold that weapon of yours a lot longer. Also, there is something here I think you will find useful against the heartless."

He hands Zero a small box. Zero opens it up and a look of surprise appears on his face.

Zero: "Thanks Merlin. This should definitely come in handy."

Merlin: "You're welcome. I also know of an item synthesizing shop in the first district. With all your items, they will be able to make some great weapons. It's just above the accessories shop."

Zero: "I'll have to check it out, thanks."

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A few hours later, at the hotel, Leon and Aerith had taken Yuffie back to get her to bed. She still hadn't awakened from the battle, and that worried Aerith.

Aerith: "She's still out cold. How could this have happened? The duo defense ring should have doubled her defensive power. Why didn't it work?"

Leon: "It did work; the thing is that the heartless are growing stronger. I doubt Sora could have take them. Anyways, what was in that box that that guy gave you?"

Aerith: "I don't know. Let's take a look."

She takes out the small case and opens it. Inside are 10 sapphire shuriken giving off a mystical looking glow. Leon whistled as he looked at them. Aerith was in awe at how beautiful these weapons were. Just then, they both heard a soft moan and saw Yuffie was waking up.

Aerith: "Yuffie! You're awake! Oh thank goodness, did you know how worried we were! Don't ever do that to us again, ya hear!"

Yuffie: "… Aerith, my body is sore all over and I've got a splitting head ach. I don't… Hey! Wait a second! What happened? And how am I completely healed?"

Aerith: "Remember that guy in the cloak? Well, he saved you. He took out all of those heartless with ease. Leon tried hitting them with his gunblade, but it didn't do anything at all. That guy came over and used some spell to remove the glass from your back. He then cast some advanced cure spell that healed you completely. He then gave me the spell Curaga, a level 3 spell! He also said if you were going to fight those kind of heartless you should use these." She held up the shurikens. Yuffie gasped in awe.

Yuffie: "They're beautiful. Just one thing, though, did you get his name?"

Leon: "… His name is Zero. As to what he looks like, or even what his intentions are, we still don't know."

Yuffie: "Oh… Zero. Sounds kind of cool. Anyways, I think I'm gonna take a nice hot bath, maybe that'll help my aching body." At that Leon quickly turned away, covering the ever so small blush coming on his face at the thought.

Leon: "Er, ahem… fine then, go ahead. I'm going to bed."

Aerith & Yuffie: "Good night." Leon just walked into his room.

Aerith: "I think I'm gonna go to bed too. Try not to stay up so late, ok?"

Yuffie: "Alright." With that, she went into the bathroom to take her bath, while Aerith went to bed.

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The next day, Yuffie woke up at about 11:30AM, and felt great. She decided to go to the Synthesizing shop to see if she could make any new accessories to help her in battle. When she got there, she saw someone already talking to a moogle.

Yuffie: 'That's funny, I never saw him here before. I wonder who it is.' She then went up to him. "Hi, you new here?" At this the guy turned around to look at her.

Zero: "Your name's Yuffie, right? In any case, you're looking better than you did yesterday."

Yuffie: " What? How do you … wait a second. You're Zero, right?"

Zero: "Yeah. Did you get the shuriken I gave that girl?"

Yuffie: "Yes, I did. They're beautiful. Thanks a lot, I can't wait to test them out."

Zero: "You should rest for the day, at the least. My spell only heals damage, not restore energy."

Yuffie: "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyhow, you come to make some accessories?"

Zero: "Yeah, not much else to do around here, is there?"

Yuffie: "I guess not."

"Ahem." They looked down to see the moogle looking at them. "IS there anything we can make for the two of you?" it asked, handing them both a list of synthesizing items, ingredients, and what the items do.

Yuffie: "…All I can get is a Power Chain." She said with a small pout.

Zero: "…… I'll take 4 Master Earrings, 2 Titan Chain, and 4 AP Ups."

Yuffie: "WHAT? How can you get all that stuff? These Ingredients are super hard to find."

Zero: "I've traveled around to many worlds, beaten a bunch of high classed heartless, and trained with some of the best fighters in the galaxy."

Yuffie: "Oh…" Was all she could say.

Moogle: "Here are your items. Thank you, and please come again with more items, we love to experiment new things."

Zero: "I'll see what I can do."

Yuffie: "Thanks." Zero and Yuffie walked out. Outside, Zero uses the AP Ups, equips 2 Master Earrings, and both Titan Chains, while Yuffie equips her Power Chain.

Zero: "Here take these, they can help you a lot more than they can me." He hands her his remaining Master Earrings.

Yuffie: "What? I can't take these. You must have worked hard to get the ingredients for them."

Zero: "Consider it as an apology. I had left my glass on the table you crashed through yesterday… and for being a jerk, as you put it." He grins. "Besides, I think they'll look better on you than me anyways."

Yuffie: Blushes. "Umm, thanks then, I guess. And sorry about that Jerk comment." She equips the earrings.

Zero: "Don't mention it. Besides, I kind of am one most of the time. There aren't that many people I can trust, or even afford to trust for that matter."

Yuffie: "…Ok then. So, you wanna get some lunch at the café? I know they had some spare tables just in case something like this happened."

Zero: Looks up at the sky for a moment, then at Yuffie. "I guess I could. Heh, can't kick Heartless ass without some food in your stomach, can you?"

Yuffie: "(Giggles) Nope, I don't suppose you could."

So they walked down to the café to get something to eat. When they got there, it was all cleaned up and with new tables and chairs, just like Yuffie predicted. Yuffie noticed Cid, Leon, and Aerith were sitting at a table eating lunch, so she pointed them out to Zero and started over to them.

Yuffie: "Hey guys, whats up?"

Cid: "Hey kid, nice to see ya up and about after that there fight yesterday. Who's this fine fella ya got here?"

Yuffie: " First off, don't call me kid you old man. Second, this is Zero, without his cloak on."

Zero: "Hi."

Cid: "Heh, a man of few words eh. Names's Cid, I work with gummi parts and own the accessory shop."

Aerith: "I'm Aerith, thanks for your help yesterday."

Leon: "…Leon…"

Zero: mumbles "Oh, I'm a man of few words." Talks normally. "Nice to meet all of you." Everyone had heard him mumble. Yuffie and Aerith giggled, Cid smiled, and Leon just raised an eye brow.

Aerith: "Would you care to join us for lunch Zero? We've got enough room for five here."

Zero: "Why not. I am getting a little hungry anyways." Yuffie and Zero sit down.

Leon: "Tell me Zero, how did you beat those heartless so easily when we could barely do any damage?"

Zero: "Well first off, when you attacked those Wizards with your sword, its fire elemental right, you didn't damage them. You actually made them stronger and restored their HP."

Yuffie: "What? How does that work out?"

Zero: "Well, Wizard heartless are strengthened by fire, ice and electric elements. The only way for fire to work against them would be to reflect their own flame attack back at them. Not only does it cause them damage, but it also puts them in a dazed state for about a minute."

Aerith: "You seem to know quite a bit about the heartless."

Zero: "Yeah, I just studied some guy's report. I also found a sort of Heartless Index book. It's very specific in heartless details, from their strengths and weaknesses to what items they leave behind. It really helped me gather the items I need every now and then."

Aerith: "Do you still have this book?"

Zero: "Yeah, I do. It's in my gummy ship, along with a copy of the report. I'll get it after lunch for you."

Leon: "The guy who wrote that report, his name wouldn't have been Ansem, would it?" At this everyone looked at Zero.

Zero: "Something like that, yeah."

Yuffie: "Where did you find it? We thought that the report was scattered all over the galaxy."

Zero: "It was, until Maleficent found them all. It was hard enough to find where she hid it, much less make a copy of it."

Cid: "Ya mean ya know where Maleficent's place is?"

Zero: "Some place called Hollow Bastion. Judging from how the place is in shambles now, I'd say it must have been a beautiful place." Zero then notices everyone's shocked, sad, and/or anger expressions. "You been there before?"

Aerith: In a whisper "That's our home world."

Zero: shocked "I'm…I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was your world."

Yuffie: "…Its ok, how could you have known? Besides, at least now we know that it still exists."

Leon: mumbles "And where the heartless's main base of operations is."

After that, everyone eats their lunch. Zero gets the report and the detailed book about the heartless. Then they all head over to Cid's house over in the third district.

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This has to be the longest chapter I've ever written, although that's not saying much. Anyways, the more reviews I get, the sooner the next chapter will be up. Till then.