Alrighty! We are back with ch10, it took me a little bit but I got back into the flow of this story. I just also got a little caught up with college and all that. But anyways let's get on with the chapter!

Ch.10

"So would you like a tour around the mansion?" Lea asked as he stood up and stretched a little.

Vanitas shrugged. "Maybe?... I don't know…"

"Well you probably are hungry right? We should get you some food," Lea replied.

At that moment Vanitas felt his stomach grumble. He was far more hungry than he thought he was. Vanitas still wasn't to happy about the situation he was in, but he could tell that Lea meant well. Without much other choice, Vanitas decided to trust him. Isa on the other hand… Vanitas still was not sure what to think of him. He was rude as he had shown every time he spoke, but Lea said Isa was his friend. So Vanitas figured there must be some nicer side to him under all the coldness he showed.

After a moment he got up and nodded. "Okay…"

"All right kid, just follow us. We'll show you around and everything," Lea said as he walked towards Isa, who was still standing in the doorway.

"I said stop calling me kid…" Vanitas grumbled as he crossed his arms.

Lea sighed a little. "Sorry. It was Vanitas, right?" Vanitas just grumbled and nodded in response. "Okay then, let's go." Lea motioned for Vanitas to follow as he began to walk down the hall. Isa didn't say anything, but walked along with Lea.

Vanitas quickly walked to catch up with them, though he walked behind them and did say anything. He still was not too happy to know that this mansion was now basically his home. The three of walked in silence for a little bit as they continued down the hallway.

Finally after another minute of no one talking, Lea cleared his throat. "Hm. So Vanitas… You go a nickname or something?"

"Yeah? Why do you wanna know?" Vanitas asked.

Lea shrugged. "Just was wondering. Would you prefer us to call you by that then?"

Vanitas shrugged. "Whatever…"

"What's your nickname then? Van? Vani?" Lea asked.

Vanitas tensed up slightly. "Not Vani. Don't call me Vani." There was only one person who ever called him Vani. It was the same person who had created the nickname for him. That person of course was Ventus.

Vanitas recalled the memory of when Ventus had first given him the nickname. They were pretty young at the time and Ventus had said that Vani sounded far better than Van. Ventus had then also said that then he couldn't be mistaken for a car van. Both of them had laugh so hard at that. They thought it was one of the funniest things in the world at the time. After that Ventus was the first and only one who could call him Vani. Vanitas wouldn't let anyone else call him that. That name was only between him and his best friend.

"Sorry, didn't mean to upset you by that. So is Van fine then?" Lea said.

Vanitas sighed. "Yeah… that's fine…If you want to..." He had tried to smile at the memory he had remembered, but there was still no joy feeling coming from it. He still tried to smile though… to pretend to be feeling happy. But it was just so hard. He now understood what Isa had talked about before. It was hard to pretend to have emotions when he really didn't have any at all.

"Now that we got that out of the way," Lea started. "If you don't mind me asking this… where are you from?"

Vanitas stopped walking crossed his arms again. "Why does it matter to you? Why do you keep asking so many questions?"

Lea sighed and shrugged, turning around to face Vanitas. "I'm just trying to make a conversation. And to answer your other question, not everyone here is actually from Twilight Town. A lot of us are from all around, so I was just curious."

"If he doesn't wish to talk about it Lea, he doesn't have to," Isa added in quietly.

Vanitas thought for a moment before he spoke up again. "Why don't you tell me where you two are from first?"

"That's fine," Lea said. "We're from Radiant Garden."

Vanitas's eyes widened a little. "Radiant Garden? That's pretty far from here… how did you two end up trapped here then?"

"Same reason you probably came here. To explore this place and see if the rumors and legends were true. As I said before, we came here to explore this place a few years back… but once we entered… We got trapped here and all that…" Lea trailed off as he looked towards the ground for a moment.

The was a moment of silence between all three of them, but Vanitas finally decided to speak up. Though he spoke quietly as he mumbled his words. "Destiny Islands."

Lea looked up again. "What was that?"

"I'm from Destiny Islands…" Vanitas responded.

"Ah I see. I've heard it's a nice place… never got to go there before though," Lea said.

"I went once or twice when I was younger. It is a nice place to visit anytime of year," Isa said, speaking up again.

Vanitas closed his eyes as he thought of his home. He was never going to see it again. He was never going to run along the shore and play in the ocean. All of that was over for him now. Vanitas sighed a little… he really wished he could feel upset about this, but there was still nothing at all. He started to wonder how well everyone could handle something like this...because he wasn't so sure he would be able to.

"We can continue walking now…" Vanitas said.

Lea nodded without saying anything more, and the three of them continued on their walk. They walked for a bit further until they came to a hallway that split into three different directions. Lea and Isa stopped for a moment, seeming to debate which way to go first. This place was far larger than Vanitas ever thought. He began to wonder just how many rooms were actually in the mansion and what other type of rooms there were. Suddenly a thought came to his mind. He noticed that everything in the hallways was nicely kept and clean. Nothing here looked abandon at all.

"Wait… how come all of this looks nice and clean, but the front of the mansion still looks all messy and abandon? There's all that broken glass and stuff over there, but none of that is down here."

"Well...That's probably because…" Lea said as he thought about it. "I don't know how to explain it… You know how to Isa?"

"It is because it lures the unsuspecting people into a false sense of security. Someone enters this place, sees the lobby in disrepair, and thinks it is completely abandon due to it being in that state. If it were kept in pristine condition like the rest of his place, people would be more wary of entering here. Ansem had it done on purpose so more people would come in to explore out of curiosity. Just like you did the other night," Isa explained rather casually.

"That was a little more than I expected… but yeah, what he said," Lea commented. He paused for a moment before pointing down the left hallway. "Come one, we'll go down this way towards the library."

"There's a library in here?" Vanitas asked.

"There is a lot more than just bedrooms here. This place is like a really fancy hotel or something. Lot of different rooms for different purposes," Lea said as they all started walking down the left hallway.

They then came to a staircase that led down to the first floor. Upon walking a little bit more they came to a large set of doors. Much larger and fancier looking than the bedroom doors. Lea reached forward and placed his hand on one of the door handles.

"Let's see if anyone is in here right now," Lea said before opening the door.

Vanitas peered inside to see what he had expected. It was a large room full of shelves that held many books. There were also a few tables with books scattered across them. Vanitas then noticed something at one of the tables… or really someone. Much to his surprise he saw a young boy sitting at one of the tables, reading a book. He looked like he was just a couple years younger than Vanitas. He had short, metallic, bluish-grey hair with some of it falling over his right eyes. The boy didn't seem to notice any of them enter, he just continued to read his book.

"That's Ienzo," Lea said. "Don't be surprised if he doesn't talk to you. He's a quiet kid. He prefers to sit around and read all day."

"But…" Vanitas started trying to figure out his words. "He's just…"

"Just a kid right?" Lea answered. He then let out a sigh. "Yeah he is...He's only nine years old, but has been here three years. Just a year before we came here. He's… one of the few Ansem actually brought here himself."

Vanitas looked at Lea, confused and surprised by his statement. "Brought here?"

Vanitas thought Lea would answer, but instead Isa was the one to speak up. "For whatever reason, whether there is a real reason or if he does it just out of boredom. there are a few who are brought here actually by Ansem. They of course are under the curse just as we are."

"Wait...You mean Ansem can actually leave the mansion?" Vanitas suddenly asked.

"Yeah. Unfair I know," Lea sighed. "But I guess since he created the curse, he isn't affected by it."

"Oh...I see…" Vanitas said as he looked down at the ground. He then looked back at Ienzo who was still reading his book. "So do you know why he was brought here?"

Lea shook his head. "We tried asking Ienzo before if he knew why Ansem brought him here, but he never has said anything about it. Like I said, rather quiet kid."

"If you are going to talk about me like that… How about you do it when I am not in the room? I would prefer not to have to hear you all talk about me when I am just sitting right here," Ienzo grumbled as he spoke up. He had placed the book down on the table and now was looking at the group.

"Sorry Ienzo. We were just showing the new kid around," Lea said as he gestured to Vanitas. "This is Vanitas."

Ienzo stared at Vanitas with narrowed eyes as if he was inspecting Vanitas for something. Vanitas waved slightly, but didn't say anything. He was still having a hard time that there was actually someone younger than him trapped in the mansion. He could only wonder how Ienzo dealt with the curse for so long at so young of a age.

Finally after another moment Ienzo was the one to speak up. "Hello Vanitas. Welcome to the mansion… I guess." Ienzo then picked up his book and went back to his reading.

"I think that's all you are going to get out of him for today. Let's continue on with the tour," Lea said as he stepped out of the room with Isa followed him a second later.

Vanitas looked at Ienzo one last time and then exited the room. "How many others are there?"

"What do you mean exactly? Lea said as they started to walk again.

"How many people are trapped here?" Vanitas asked.

"Well… there's been many throughout the years since the curse started...But not a whole lot in recent years. I think there may be over twenty people here right now? I've never really paid much attention to all of that," Lea said.

"Ah...Okay…" Vanitas sighed.

Lea and Isa continued to lead Vanitas around the mansion. They showed him different rooms and areas, like where the kitchen and dining hall was. They had stopped there for a bit while Vanitas ate some food. At first he was wary of eating the food that existed in the cursed mansion, but Lea and Isa assured him it was safe to eat. When the tour continued on, they did encounter others who were trapped there, but Vanitas stopped paying attention to who they were. All the rest seemed to be adults and he also just wasn't that interested in meeting everyone. By the end of the tour they had ended up at the front of the mansion.

"So Van, what do you want to do now?" Lea asked.

"What do you mean?" Vanitas asked.

"Well we just showed you all around the mansion, there must be something you want to do to pass the time," Lea explained.

Vanitas thought about it for a moment, but he just didn't want to do anything. He was still upset that he was trapped here so he really didn't want to do anything. There was that and also he didn't feel like doing anything.

"What would we even do though?" Vanitas decided to ask anyways.

"I don't know. Something fun like a game or something. There's a lot of things we could do," Lea responded as he rubbed the back of his next.

"Fun?" Vanitas asked. "But how can we have… fun if we can't feel it?" Vanitas remembered what Lea had said before about being able to do things that would bring emotions, even if they couldn't feel them anymore. But he still was not too keen on that. He really wanted to feel emotions when having fun, not just pretend. He didn't want to play and not feel any fun from it.

Lea sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "I know we can't feel having fun, but we can still do something at least."

"No… I just want to go back to my room…" Vanitas responded.

"Are you sure? You shouldn't just stay in your room all day," Lea said.

"I can do what I want, and I want to go back to my room. You can't tell me what to do," Vanitas grumbled as he walked past Isa and Lea and headed towards his room.

Lea and Isa stood there as they walked Vanitas walk off until he was out of sight. Lea turned towards Isa and narrowed his eyebrows. "I'm going to blame you for this."

Isa looked at Lea with a little confusion. "Me? Whatever for?"

"I think what you said before is getting to him. You're not a good role model for the kid," Lea responded.

"I think he was already like that beforehand. You saw how he was before we properly met him. Punching that pillow and his attitude towards everything has nothing to do with me," Isa responded camly, with still no sign of any emotion in him.

"You still gotta be nicer to him. Don't go telling him that he shouldn't bother remembering emotions or what not. I don't need him ended up all emotionless like you."

"But wouldn't that be pointless? Aren't we all already emotionless? If that is the case then you failed already," Isa said, and much to Lea's surprise there seemed to be the slightest smirk on Isa's face.

Lea groaned as he rolled his eyes. It was always slightly annoying when Isa decided to be snarky or sarcastic like that. "Oh ha ha, very funny. How about this then… I don't want him to end up being a boring stick in the mud like you."

The small smirk faded from Isa's face as he shrugged. "I cannot determine what the kid will become. That is something for him to decide. If he decides to discard the memories of emotion then that is his choice."

"Well I really hope he doesn't do that. He seems like he could be a nice kid. I'd hate to see him end up like that."

And that's the end of that chapter. Still got plenty more of the Vanitas backstory arc to cover. So I hope you are all ready for that!

Also I think I forgot to mention before, but yes I am using their regular names (Lea, Isa, Ienzo) instead of their Nobody names. No complicated X name thing going on here lol. I just prefer the Sombody names for some reason.

Anyways, thanks for reading and I will see you next time. It may take longer cause college and work and stuff, but I will try mu best to get you guys a new chapter of something eventually.