4 – The Castle of Heartless
Kitsuko stood up, looking at the castle. She knew she had been there before, but...she couldn't quite remember what she had done there. At least they had succeeded in taking a risk; They were able to get the Chimera to help them without it devouring anyone. But if they had to do it again, they surely would not be so lucky..So Kitsuko hoped they would be able to find their answers here in Hollow Bastion.
"Let's go", said Kitsuko, as she jumped to the next floating rock in the Rising Falls. Kieon was clinging to her shoulder.
Akane followed Kitsuko, Aiko clinging to her shoulder. "Okay." she replied simply. She watched the rising falls, and it gave her a headache. By looking at the falls, it seemed as if she was going up, or down, it was hard to tell, but she was standing still.. Akane looked away, and focused at the rocks instead of the falls, as she jumped up to the next rock with haste; afraid of being left behind by Kitsuko.
Kitsuko reached the highest rock and waited for Akane. Finally, Akane reached the last rock, pulled herself up, and dusted herself off. She paused and stared at the castle in the distance. "So how do we get to that castle?" Akane asked.
"Uh, we take this elevator thing." She pointed to the round platform in front of them. It was hanging by a pole-like thing which connected to a faint electric line, which led to the castle.
The four of them got onto the platform, and it began on its way to the castle. Kitsuko started gazing at the castle. It was the only thing around, it seemed, except for the faint mountains in the distance. She began to feel a little lightheaded...But she shook her head and looked at Akane so she wouldn't focus so much on the mysterious scenery.
Finally they arrived at the castle. It looked quiet and lonely, yet ominous. There seemed to be no heartless around..
Kitsuko asked, "You haven't been here before, right?" She looked up and saw the rest of the massive castle towering above them, along with the smoking pipes.
"I dont remember being here, but I could have been here before.." Akane replied. She wondered why there weren't any heartless around. She examined her surroundings a bit more, as something seemed familiar.
Kitsuko felt a little strange...the fur of her tail was ruffled a bit, and she was kinda nervous. She felt a great danger somewhere around, but they had to keep going. She walked slowly toward the large doors to the inside of the castle, her were ears perked up and listening for the slightest stange sound. She kept turning around to make sure Akane was still there.
Akane followed Kisuko, but she didn't quite understand why Kitsuko was being so cautious. She attempted to be cautious as well. Aiko hopped behind the two, as she was geting sick of being on Akane's shoulder. Kieon hopped off of Kitsuko's shoulder as well, and began walking beside Aiko. She didn't like clinging to Kitsuko whenever she was acting so cautious.
Kitsuko put a hand on the door, pausing a bit before she slowly opened the heavy doors. Kitsuko took a few steps into the castle, when a swarm of Heartless suddenly appeared! It was quite an army - there were Defenders, Wizards, Large Bodies, and Darkballs! Kitsuko gasped and looked behind her, but some heartless closed and locked the doors behind her! She faced the heartless, ready to fight.
Akane ran to the door as it shut, but when she tried to open it, it was locked. She listened and heard the heartless. Akane tried a few spells, but they only weakened the lock by a bit. She continued to use the spells. Surprisingly, Kieon had managed to dash inside just in time, so she stood beside Kitsuko, ready to fight as well.
Kitsuko yelled out to Akane, "It's no use, it won't open unless the heartless are defeated!", as she ran toward a Wizard heartless and slashed at it with a slashing attack (similar to Inuyasha's Iron Reaver). She continued to slash away at the Wizards while dodging the Defenders' fireballs and the Darkballs' attacks.
Akane listened to the sounds in the room. She worried, but couldn't help. Akane stood there, waiting for the battle sounds to finally end. She felt misplaced, and didn't know what to do..
Kitsuko defeated a few heartless but was getting pretty injured, as more seemed to appear. Finally she called out, "Kieon! Light form!".
Kieon's tail twitched as a faint gray star appeared on her forehead...and she shifted into her Espeon form! Espeon was also a fox-like Pokemon. It had very light purple fur, and a cat-like tail which split into two tails near the end. It had large ears, wide eyes, and a small, round, crimson stone embedded into its forehead.
As Espeon, Kieon used a Psybeam attack on the Large Bodies and destroyed them, while Kitsuko finished off the Defenders and Darkballs. The heartless in the area were defeated for now, and so the large doors opened.
Akane walked through the doors. They walked forward a bit and a few Shadow heartless appeared. Akane used some spells to defeat them, while Aiko used defensive spells, and healed everyone as she stood near the door.
Kitsuko began walking up the stairs on the left , with Kieon following behind at a distance. Kitsuko looked back to be sure Akane was following, and opened the door to the library. Akane followed Kitsuko up the stairs, and Aiko hopped behind.
"So where does that door lead to?" Akane asked as she stared at the door.
Kitsuko didn't really know where she was going, and expected to find more heartless behind this door. But instead, this was the library, and there were no heartless. The gray star appeared on Kieon's forehead again, and she shifted back into her Eevee form. Being an avid lover of books, Kieon said to Kitsuko, "Perhaps we can find some useful information here." Kieon noticed a glowing book nearby, but Kitsuko didn't notice. Kitsuko sniffed around and her ears twitched. She sensed that someone slightly familiar had been there before.
"..." Akane felt a bit ignored, she walked in after Kitsuko and Kieon. She wondered why they were acting strangely like this..
Kieon turned around and asked Akane and Aiko, "Will you help me look for some books?"
Kitsuko began to slightly growl. She looked down to Kieon, "Do whatever you want, but I'm going on."
Kieon looked a little worried, but she let Kitsuko walk away and go through another door. "Akane, I don't think we should follow her...Let's leave her alone for a while, because it's not too safe to be around her when she gets like this. You remember the incident in Traverse Town…"
"Okay," Akane said, remembering what happened in Traverse Town. She walked through the door into the library. "What kinds of books are we looking for?" she asked.
"I'm not sure what we're looking for, but some of these books seem to be slightly glowing, so try looking at those.. Hm, a lot of the books here have something to do with darkness.." She pulled down one of the glowing books and began quickly reading it. "It says something about 'Ansem, the seeker of darkness'..."
Meanwhile Kitsuko was walking down a hallway somewhere else in the castle. Her eyes were mysteriously blue (they were normally purple), and there seemed to be darkness swarming around her…
end of chapter four – the castle of heartless