Pete could pretty much walk through Disney Castle without a care in the world. Ha! The irony! Taking a deep breath, Pete inhaled the frosty winds passing through and smelled the fresh scents of gingerbread cookies in the air. Christmas was on its way. That much he knew from the snowfall and decorations. He sort of missed old Disney Town as he snuck around the castle halls a bit light-footed with no guards around to protect anything. Now was not the time to be smug, though. That's what the blonde kid, Fait, would tell him. Of all the people Maleficent got involved with in her schemes, Fait was really the only one he had a soft spot towards. He couldn't stand Melvin and was kind of indifferent toward Shinnosuke. Not that the samurai was a bad Heartless, he just... didn't do much? At least he didn't do much unless his friends were nearby. Fait was different, though. He protected him from harm if he could (and usually did), and, if he made a mistake, Fait seemed to be the only one truly forgiving of him. He even gave him advice on how to do better. That's what made him wonder a bit.
Sora and his gang of keyblade wielders might pose too big of a problem for Fait, but Maleficent was fairly confident in demonstrating the blonde's strength against them. He knew she wanted to reclaim her dominance as a formidable opponent and ruler. He just wasn't sure if Fait was ready to fight other masters. They just got through with fighting Master Xehanort. Fait retired for a few years after she completed her training with Maleficent. As Pete was walking to the throne room of the castle, he realized there was literally no one around. Why was he even thinking about anything other than how easy this all was?
"No guards, no worries," Pete said, dancing to his own little tune. He tiptoed like a ballerina for a moment and then twirled with glee as he went to the royal hall where the Cornerstone of Light was residing underneath that pipsqueak's throne. As he opened the door, he was met with an unnerving silence before his song became more playful in his head. You could say it sounded like the Nutcracker's song. He crept to the throne and then said, "You know, this is the easiest job I've ever gotten! Too bad Fait's dealin' wit' those troublemakin' friends of his. He probably would've enjoyed this."
Pete snapped his fingers as he pushed a switch that opened the floor to the Cornerstone of Light. Heartless soon appeared from different parts of the room and rushed out to spread all over with Pete's silent command. All he really did was point a finger as he hummed his delightful song. The playful song soon turned into a jazz number as he spread fingers and waved them out. Each step he took downstairs earned a kick as a high as his knee as he heard the crash of cymbals playing in his ears. Oh, he loved this! Fait would've loved this. He liked making him laugh. When the big cat came face to face with the glowing orb of power, he noticed a presence nearby and turned to his left to see a figure standing in the shadows. At first, Pete really didn't pay attention to it until he realized the only presence that should be near the Cornerstone of Light was his.
"Hm?" Pete questioned. There, to his chagrin, was Shinnosuke hiding in the shadows to protect himself from the offensive light trying to drain his power. Shocked that the Heartless was even there, he said, "Hey! This is my gig, see! You had your fun with Queen Minnie when you took her to Enchanted Dominion!"
Shinnosuke remained quiet at this and simply said, "The king knows we're here."
"What?" Pete questioned. "How would he know that? Did you tell him when you kidnapped Minnie?"
"No," Shinnosuke said, walking towards the door exiting the Cornerstone room.
"Hey, what's with you anyway?" Pete questioned, pointing at the Heartless and making him stop for a moment to listen. "Don't you know every time you mess up, Fait gets put in the slammer?"
"Why do you care?" Shinnosuke questioned angrily, startling Pete with the intense energy seeping from the Heartless. "All you care about is taking over worlds just like Maleficent! Why do you care about anything the Heartless do? It's got nothing to do with you!"
Pete was flabbergasted - no, something beyond even that. Shinnosuke never shouted at anyone over anything. He was always the strong, quiet type; in fact, you could say he was the most level-headed among Fait's group. Something was wrong - really wrong - for him to go outside his usual zone. There was a deeper reasoning for kidnapping the queen. Whatever it was, however, it would hurt Fait in the end. That's something he learned when he met the three friends. If any one of the Heartless trio did something that would possibly upset Maleficent, everyone was punished in some way that made Pete cringe. He never knew what Maleficent did to them, but they became obedient almost instantly whenever someone was punished. That made Pete a little angry because he liked Fait and actually preferred him being a humanoid than a creature.
"That's not fair!" Pete complained. "I dunno 'bout the rest o' ya, but me and Fait is close. If he gets hurt, then... I dunno... I'll..."
When Shinnosuke saw Pete at a loss of words for Fait's well-being, he gradually calmed down and relaxed himself. He didn't know Pete liked Fait enough to help him if he was down. He knew they got along but to feel so close to Fait as a friend was touching. Shinnosuke took a small breath and then said, "When I took Queen Minnie, I stayed behind to see where the king would be. He left to find her, but he warned whoever remained here that the Heartless would return soon if the castle remained unprotected for too long. I'm assuming he called on someone he knew to protect the castle while he was away. That's the only reason why you're having such an easy time with this."
"Ah, so you took Minnie to see how much time you would really get to steal this big lightbulb," Pete said in an attempt to make sense of everything.
Shinnosuke nodded, knowing it was a lie, and then said, "If you don't hurry, we'll fail our mission here and anger Maleficent. You want to protect Fait from the slammer, right?"
Pete growled but he couldn't respond much. The samurai was right. He had to hurry up. Pete turned to the Cornerstone and whispered, "Why does everything have to be so gosh-darn complicated?"
Shinnosuke lightly chuckled, sighed, and then said, "Why indeed."
By the time Shinnosuke walked out, Heartless were chasing behind the townspeople of Disney Castle. He couldn't stay on the castle grounds, however, at least not with the Cornerstone of Light being moved to a new place. Shinnosuke ran through the castle grounds to head into town. The colorful ribbons and signs and people were running about in terror, but there was a group of them heading to a large building. Where were they going? Lifting a hand, Shinnosuke opened a corridor and summoned a group of Darkball Heartless to apprehend the group gathering near the building. With them huddling, he was able to get a good look at it. It had the appearance of a warehouse and was a good 30 to 35 feet in height. Based on the size of the building, the length of it could have easily been twice the height. Above the building's clock was a picture of two chipmunks smiling brightly, and a picture of a Gummi ship was on the door. Shinnosuke easily deduced that the building was where escape vessels were. Clever. He dismissed the Heartless with a wave of his hand and looked at the shivering townsfolk.
One of the people - namely a horse of some kind - got angry and demanded, "What in tarnation is goin' on here? Who are ya?"
"Shinnosuke," he answered calmly. "Pete is taking away your Cornerstone of Light. Because of that, your world is no longer safe from darkness."
"That Pete!" the horse complained, taking his hat and throwing it down.
"Your king and queen tried to help me, so I'll try to help you in return," Shinnosuke said, gaining the people's attention.
He lifted his arms up and produced a strong light that flashed and then subsided. Calling on the power of his memories, Shinnosuke split the light in two and crafted two orbs. The orbs then became two bodies, and they began to form into something amazing: two worlds! One world became a miniature-scale model of a dimly-lit town. There were bulidings made of brick and roads made of cobblestone. Some neon lighting gave the town a brightened appearance, and a large clock tower ringing its bell was someone in the center. A fountain was also running near it. The people could see three distinct areas in the small-scale town as they looked on. Three small ducks, however, perked up at the sight of the world.
"Hey, that's Traverse Town!" a duck dressed in a blue cap and shirt said.
"Yes," Shinnosuke said, nodding. "This is where people who have lost their world to darkness often find themselves. It might be in your best interest to go there. But..."
The samurai then crafted a new world that was covered in music scales. It was a lot livelier than Traverse Town and had meadows, canyons, towns, and a group of islands plotted about. There was even a large castle sitting in the meadow. You could see a distinct part of town jumping from the music playing there. No one spoke of ever seeing this place. That's when Shinnosuke spoke again in a more careful manner.
"There is also this other world where those who have lost their hearts or their memories to the blight of darkness often find themselves. It's also where some people who've lost their world live now," Shinnosuke said, handing the small worlds to the three ducks. "You have a choice now. Either you take your vessels and go to Traverse Town to find refuge, or you go to this new world."
"What's the catch?" a little duck in green asked suspiciously.
"In Traverse Town, you'll see more Heartless like the ones here attacking the people. Not a lot of them. Just some here and there. In that other world, the Heartless co-exist with the townspeople in harmony. You'll see Heartless either way, but they'll be different," Shinnosuke explained. He sensed someone coming towards him and rushed the people inside saying, "Hurry and leave this place while you can. Decide carefully."
The townspeople nodded and ran into the warehouse with the doors shutting behind them. As he walked back into the town square, he waited for the presence to draw near with some anticipation. Really, he was more concerned for the few townsfolk he met. Would they go to Traverse Town or the other world? He knew they would be treated kindly no matter where they decided to go, but Maleficent was on the move. There was no telling what she would want done with them if they went to Traverse Town while Princess Aurora was still there.
The sound of running footsteps disturbed Shinnosuke's thoughts and he was met with a group of four people. One person was a young male with spiky, brown hair and blue eyes, another person was another young male with silver hair and sharp, green eyes, and the other two people were like the anthropomorphic Disney Town folk. They were a duck like the little ones who identified Traverse Town and a dog about the same height as the horse. Each male had interesting outfits, for sure. The two humans got into fighting position immediately upon seeing them and called upon the power of their keyblades. Shinnosuke gasped at this, recalling Melvin's earlier words about Maleficent wanting to retest Fait as a keyblade master. Looking at the two boys, the Heartless wondered which of the two would be chosen to fight Fait.
"Hey! Who are you?" the boy with brown hair demanded.
"No one important," the Heartless responded, surprising the boy a bit. "The one you'll be facing soon is the one you should be concerned about. In the meantime..."
When Shinnosuke got into his own fighting stance, the group tensed up and got a good look at him. It looked like they were observing his armor as he waited for him to make the first move. With his blade drawn, their eyes went to his katana and its teeth making jagged edges along the blade. Shinnosuke lifted his hand to summon a glass sphere containing Darkball Heartless inside of it, and then hissed to make his blade sing before lunging at the group. He quickly struck down the duck as it casted fairly high level magic at him. Fortunately, the glass sphere absorbed the magic spells and the Darkball Heartless casted Protect on Shinnosuke. With his defenses going up, it made it easy for him to block the dog and brown-haired keyblade wielder trying to smash his head in. As soon as he noticed the silver-haired coming to attack him, Shinnosuke dove into the icy roads of Disney Town and performed a sneak attack on him.
This was going to be a tough fight. This much he knew now with the damage he could inflict on them being so low. At the moment, the sphere of Darkball Heartless was saving his life by draining the duck's magical abilities. Otherwise, he could have held himself up if it was a one-on-one match, but all of this was just to evaluate the group's skills and abilities for now so he could at least warn Fait about the powers he would be up against. Right as he was about to attack the brunette teen, the boy leapt into the air and came crashing down like a shooting arrow. Shinnosuke took the liberty of punching the ground to counter this move and lift part of the road to block the attack before releasing the Darkball Heartless from their prison. From there, he just saw them ricochet in different directions. He was left with little to no choice other than to fight with the Heartless by his side. He managed to perform enough sneak attacks to down the goofy-looking dog, but he would need more to get the keyblade wielders. After what felt like the longest fight of his life, Shinnosuke was weakened enough to the point where he was breathing heavily and resting on one knee to calm his adrenaline and racing heart.
The brunette then asked, "Not so tough without your little 'friends' around, are you?"
When the armored Heartless lifted up his head, he let out a bitter chuckle and responded, "As I said before, I'm not the one you should be worried about. I'm just here to complete my mission. I got what I came here for. Had you shown up about half an hour ago, this world might have been saved. Take a look at the sky."
The duck and dog looked up quickly and gasped as the sky was being blanketed by a cloak of darkness. The ground was also breaking apart and rumbling under the weight of destruction. The sound of an airship rising from the ground caught everyone's attention as they looked to the warehouse. The ship turned around a bit to reposition itself and then shot into the sky at impressive speeds. Shinnosuke was pleased with the townspeople finally leaving and rose to his feet to open a corridor to darkness.
"HEY!" Donald called, frustrated with the enemy. "You tell us what the heck is going on or else we'll beat it out of you!"
"You have eyes. You can see what's happening. However, I do have a message for the king and queen," the Heartless said, alerting everyone's attention. "Tell them I'm sorry. This world is no longer shielded from the darkness. I wish I could've helped them more, but... the most I'm able to do is direct their people to a place of refuge. I can't go against my mistress anymore."
Sora gasped at this and watched the Heartless bow in respect before turning to leave. He called out to it and asked, "Hey, wait! Who are you? How do you know Mickey and Minnie?"
The Heartless stopped and then said, "I'm Shinnosuke. They tried to help me. I wanted to return the favor."
After that, Shinnosuke disappeared into his corridor to darkness and left the group speechless.