After Mitsu took some time to herself she steeled herself to explore what lied outside of large dark-colored wood doors regardless of what Riku had told her. Regardless of the small breakdown she had moments ago she knew that she couldn't sit still and wait.
The words of the two unknown people that spoke to her were also too close for comfort and because of that, she needed to speak to him. She needed to talk to Riku somewhere different from here, just the two of them.
"Alright, Mitsu…you can do this…it's just a castle…and you need to talk to him somewhere else…you always talked to Riku…just think about that...and not the kiss," Mitsu said quietly to herself. She placed her hand on the handle of the door and peeked through the crack of the door before she exited the room.
The hall was dim and silent as she glanced around, the hall seemed to be in a mess, the tapestry on the walls appeared to peel, the paintings were damaged or torn to conceal who had lived at the castle at an earlier, the maintenance had been severely neglected. Across the way, she could see more doors that she would need to cross over the ground floor to reach. Cautiously Mitsu began towards the staircase and looked over the rail and down to the floor below.
From the corner of her vision, she caught a glimpse of a dark figure on the ground floor his attention focused somewhere else.
Mitsu quickly crouched and hid in the shadow of the railing. Through the arms of the railing, she studied the man, his long silver hair, dark clothing, and the lengthy sword. As she quietly watched the man, he slowly turned in her direction. Panic began to wriggle it's way into her as the realization that he may have seen her despite being in the shadows of the railing. He turned away from her location and began to exit the hall, when the door closed behind him she sighed quietly in relief.
"Is this his castle?" Mitsu thought to herself as she stood and carefully peered over the railing. After she deemed the coast clear she proceeded down the stairs to the ground floor.
Aimlessly, Mitsu began to wander the castle in search of anything that would answer the questions she had. She peeked into rooms, fought heartless that lurked in the shadows. After what seemed like hours, Mitsu finally made her way across to the other side of the castle and to the last door. She placed her hand on the doorknob and began to prepare herself for what lay in wait behind the door
Her heart began to drum in her chest, pound in her ears; she quickly turned around with her key blades in her hands she faced a cloaked man.
"You—" Mitsu started when the man began to speak over her.
"ah…I remember those…Virulent Heavens and Broken Horizon…that's what they were called," The man started.
"Huh?" Mitsu replied confused at how casual the man sounded.
"Those key blades…you are not the first to have those…" The man replied as he used a finger to push away the tips of the keyblades pointed at him.
"What do you mean?" Mitsu asked as she allowed for her keyblades to be lowered by the man but still kept them in her hands. The cloaked man crossed his arms.
"You still don't remember…that's unfortunate…"
"I would like to remember, perhaps you could help me out with that?" Mitsu suggested casually.
"That's too easy, you need to work for it," he replied.
"It's not fun being the only one who doesn't remember you know," Mitsu replied sarcastically.
"Sounds unfortunate," the man replied.
"C'mon it sounds like you nearly have me figured out," Mitsu quipped in an attempt to see if the man would give her any information.
"I felt as if I almost did back then…" the man replied. The tone in his voice was faintly nostalgic as he spoke, Mitsu tilted her head slightly in confusion.
"Have we met?" Mitsu asked.
"Perhaps, perhaps not," The cloaked man shrugged
"Why are you being so difficult?" Mitsu huffed and pointed her keyblades at the cloaked man. These cloaked figures fueled her confusion and frustration by not divulging any information they had and yet all of it pointed back to her.
"A skinny little thing like you beating me down? As if," The man chuckled and let his hands fall to his side. Mitsu watched the man intently to see if he indeed would attack.
"The darkness around you is becoming thicker…one more mistake and you're a goner," The man said and pointed at Mitsu.
"What do you mean?" Mitsu asked when suddenly the man turned and began down the hall and towards a black inky portal that had opened.
"Hey-!"
Before he was able to disappear into the portal he summoned, Mitsu grabbed his arm a shiver ran through her body as she held onto his arm. The man quickly yanked his arm from her, the gesture allowed Mitsu to catch a glimpse of the man's face and the beginnings of a scar.
"I…I know you…somehow…"Mitsu looked at the man stunned.
"That's a start," the man replied and disappeared into the dark portal leaving Mitsu stunned. Mitsu looked at where the portal once was and back to her hand that grabbed the man.
"That person…how do I know him…I can't remember his name," Mitsu said to herself.
"Sora look out!" Yasuto shouted as the familiar blue light of a protection spell surrounded Sora. Sora managed to dodge the flare spell and took some damage from a creature that threw itself at him.
"Garnet!" Zidane shouted as he darted towards the white dragon in the darkened sky above Alexandria. When the trio had finally found Garnet and a few other friends, they were quickly aware of the fact that both Eiko and Garnet were princesses of heart and that they were the reason why the town of Alexandria was under attack from the heartless.
Zidane and the other quickly convinced Queen Garnet not to surrender and fight but Kuja along with nearly an army of heartless had stormed and swamped the castle in an attempt to take both Eiko and Garnet. They were hit with another surprise attack and Garnet was taken from right beneath their noses. They had chased Kuja to the high walls of the Alexandrian Castle that bordered the cliff foggy evil forest below.
"Zidane!" Garnet shouted and struggled in Kuja's grasp.
"Where the hell does he—" Shige started as he roundhouse kicked a flying heartless that charged at him. Another large goblin-like heartless charged at Shige and nearly caught him off guard. The citrine haired man quickly turned around and steeled himself from being pushed into a castle wall.
"Shige get out of there you're open!" Yasuto yelled as he fired at flying heartless that pursued Zidane along the castle walls.
"Easy for you to—" Shige started as he managed to lift the heartless and throw it off the edge into the fog below.
"Look out-!" Yasuto shouted as he was unable to cast a spell on his comrade. Shige was sent flying through several castle walls after being hit by a flare bomb by Kuja's hand.
"Shige!" Sora shouted as large ice shards formed around him and with a swing of his keyblade the icy shards impaled the goblin heartless that jumped at him, they froze in midair and shattered when they fell.
"KUJA!" Zidane shouted as he ran up the broken leaning tower next to the dragon and jumped.
"I'm gonna kill you!" Zidane shouted his skin began to glow a deep and iridescent magenta color as he reached out for Kuja, daggers in hand.
"I think not," Kuja replied with a smirk and held out his hand. Kuja shot an energy blast at Zidane, the blonde haired man easily deflected it but the force propelled him back away from Kuja and the struggling Queen.
"Zidane!" Garnet screamed as she struggled. Kuja held fast to her as his dragon began to move away from the castle.
"I grow tired of your useless screaming princess. It is time for you to sleep like your little friend," Kuja said as a purple aura surrounded him and Garnet.
"N-No…I—" Garnet slumped in Kuja's arms.
A gust of wind surrounded Zidane before he hit the ground, Zidane landed softly on his feet and curse, as he was only able to watch Kuja disappear in a large dark portal with Garnet and Eiko.
"Damn it! Damn it all!" Zidane shouted.
"Shige! Shige! Are you—" Sora started.
"It's nothing…big…relax! Ugn! It's just a scratch," Shige cringed as he felt Yasuto's magic healing his wounds. Sora knew the man was trying to be tough, and also knew that he was in pain.
"He got away," Yasuto cursed. Two surprise attacks in the matter of mere moments, the first attack was from a cloaked person that was not of this world. Yasuto could easily determine the difference in the person and could have sworn he managed to catch of glimpse of white hair underneath the hood of the cloaked person.
"I'm sorry for putting you guys through all of this and still lose…I don't even know where Vivi, Quina, or Steiner is…I don't…" Zidane trailed off.
"It's fine, we work better under pressure. We were just caught off guard too quickly, this attack was planned," Yasuto replied as he took note of the recent set back in their mission, he continued to heal Shige.
"Everything will be ok," Sora gave Zidane a reassuring smile and nod. "We have a mission to finish, and rescuing the Princesses of Heart is apart of it," Sora stated confidently. Zidane looked at the brunette haired boy and smiled nervously.
"I know they are not on Gaia anymore but...promise you'll get them back," Zidane demanded as he glanced at the two men on the ground, and then to Sora.
"We promise," Sora replied confidently.
"You need to take care of the Iifa Tree while we rescue the Princesses," Yasuto added as he stood.
"Yeah blow it to hell," Shige grunted as he ran his hand over his healed arm.
"I don't know about blowing it up, but you can definitely count on us stopping it," Zidane replied.
"Whatever you fancy just make sure to stop it," Shige replied as he stood and dusted himself off.
"Good," Sora smiled.
"Now…where is that keyhole that you promised?" Yasuto asked.
"Right, it's in Madain Sari at the Eidolon wall," Zidane replied.
"That's our next stop. Let's go. Zidane where do you think the others are? We can drop you off somewhere," Yasuto asked.
"Probably in the town below…I don't know but I'll find them," Zidane replied.
"You'll find them. Don't worry," Sora replied as he hoped to find his missing friends as well.
"Why does this place feel familiar?" Mitsu thought to herself as she wandered through the rows of bookshelves. The room she had entered was a two-level library that had floor to ceiling bookshelves, and floor to ceiling windows. The room looked to be untouched by time and was well maintained as if someone had used it regularly.
As she made her way over to the windows she peered out and noticed what seemed to be a town in the distance and large sectioned craters that looked as if they icebergs around the area.
"Maybe I can talk to him there...but how would I get there?" Mitsu thought to herself as she continued to look out the window. When suddenly she felt a presence behind her when she came face to face with the end of a blade.
It was the man from earlier.
The man was silent as he easily held the lengthy blade in her face, his green cheshire cat like eyes focused solely on her. Mitsu held her head high and held her ground as she stared back at the man.
"You're confident," the began smoothly. Mitsu remained silent as she continued to stare back at the man, with a smirk he lowered his blade.
"Don't worry, I already know who you are," the man replied.
"…I don't know who you are," Mitsu replied as she tried to remain calm and collected in front of a man she knew could end her within seconds if he chose to do so.
"My name is...Sephiroth,"
"Sephiroth…" Mitsu repeated as if the name was familiar to her when in fact she had never met the man but the name sounded familiar to her.
"You have the same fighting spirit as her…and yet completely different," Sephiroth started as he turned away from her.
"Who?" Mitsu asked getting annoyed.
"Who are these people talking about? I am me, and I look like myself and no one else," Mitsu thought to herself.
"My fight is not with you, but the Hearts of Light attracts darkness and yet exude darkness, remember that," He began. "But, being both a Princess of Heart and a key blade wielder has advantages and disadvantages. You are a target, a pawn for the darkness," As he spoke Sephiroth moved to exit the library but stopped in front of the dark cherry wood doors.
"I am not a princess," Mitsu replied firmly as she eyed the man by the door.
"You didn't have a choice in the matter," Sephiroth said as he glanced back at Mitsu before he exited the library. As the door closed a packet fell from the bookcase. Annoyed, and almost on instinct Mitsu went to pick up the packet that fell from the bookcase to put it back in its rightful place.
"First I'm the legendary key blade master and now I'm a Princess of Heart. Everyone is officially insane," Mitsu trailed off as she remembered that she was separated from everyone and Kairi was still missing.
"I'm just me," Mitsu sighed as another abrupt wave of sadness and despair washed over her.
Although Riku said that he protected Kairi, she had yet to come into contact with Kairi or even knew if she was in the castle. All this time she and Sora spent searching for both Kairi and Riku, they were together and he mentioned nothing to her about Kairi.
"What happened to you Riku?" Mitsu sighed heavily as she turned her attention to the packet in her hand. The packet was a makeshift journal:
Keyblades of Heart came into existence when the world was reorganized after the keyblade war. Without this key, Kingdom Hearts is forever beyond a person's reach. Gathering seven hearts of pure light may one forge a key blade of heart and open the door to Kingdom Hearts.
Legends speak of the eighth princess of heart's ability to use her heart of light and dark open the door to Kingdom Hearts. Opening the door to Kingdom Hearts arguably gives that person control over all worlds and people….
"Seven princesses of heart…and the eighth princess of heart…Yuna and Ashe, were princesses…they are trying to open the pathway to Kingdom Hearts…" Mitsu trailed off as she noticed more papers on the floor near the staircase.
"Ok…someone is trying to tell me something…" Mitsu thought to herself as she slowly approached the stairs and papers scattered about on the stairs.
"According to the map, this is the last place that was opened by the disturbance," Shige commented.
"So then everything ends here…right?" Sora asked.
"Never assume anything Sora," Yasuto replied.
"Right," Sora nodded eagerly
After Sora had sealed the world of Gaia through the Eidolon wall in Madain Sari, the trio headed off to the final place on their map. They had arrived near a small cavern and began to make their way through it. As they reached the end of the cavern they found stairs that lead to a debilitated and twisted castle.
"Where the heck are we?" Sora questioned as he looked two the two men.
"To be honest, I'm not even sure anymore, this place is not how it used to be," Yasuto commented quietly.
"Call this a hunch...but something is telling me that Mitsu is here," Shige started.
"What? She's here?" Sora perked up at the mention of his friend's name.
"And you're basing this off of a hunch…" Yasuto repeated.
"I have a good feeling...about this,"