Chapter V

Learning about the Heartless

"Wake up sleepy head!"

Sora woke up finding himself on a bed. "Owy, my head. It hurts." He mumbled.

"Duh, it would." Said a familiar voice.

Sora looked and saw Kairi standing right next to him.

"Kairi! Thank goodness that I found you! I still can't believe that we are in a different world! Do you know where in the world is Riku? And what happen to the kid?" Sora asked.

Kairi looked at him and laughed, "I'm not Kairi!" and at those words Sora saw a black haired girl looking at him instead of Kairi. "I'm the great ninja Yuffie!"

"What!?" Sora exclaimed. Then he looked beyond Yuffie and saw Leon just leaning against the wall, looking at the Keyblade.

"Hey you! Gimmi my Keyblade!" he shouted.

"Just hold out your hand." Leon told him.

"What?" Sora said but after thinking about it he held out his hand. At that moment the Keyblade disappeared from Leon's hand and into Sora's.

"You're chosen by the Keyblade to be its master. We had to take it off of you because of the heartless." Leon told him.

Sora looked confused. "Heartless?"

"They are the creatures that you fought with earlier." Yuffie explained, "They fear the Keyblade, so the only thing for them to do is destroying the Keyblade master… you. So we took it away for a while to throw them off."

While Leon was telling Sora about the Heartless, in another room Donald and Goofy were talking to the girl they met earlier. She told them that her name was Aerith and then she started to tell them basically what Yuffie and Leon were telling Sora.

"The heartless go around destroying worlds, attracted by the darkness in people's hearts." Aerith explained, "A man named Ansem once did research on them, he wrote everything down in his reports."

Donald looked at Aerith. "So where are theses 'reports'?"

"Scattered." She replied. "Too many worlds."

"Oh." Was Donald's answer.

"The worlds are supposed to be secret. A-yuk!" Goofy reminded.

"Of coarse, they where never meant to be known because they'd never been connected till now." Aerith told him.

"Gwarsh maybe the king went to find these reports." Goofy exclaimed.

"I was thinking just that." Aerith said.

Back to Sora. After a bit of talking and stuff like that, Leon warned Sora that the heartless were still searching for him. Suddenly some heartless burst through the door.

"Geedads, not again. Every time you sit down and relax, something has to burst down the door." Leon mumbled to himself.

"Run Sora!" Yuffie yelled.

Sora did as he was told. These people seem to know what they where doing and what was going on. Unlike him.

Donald, Goofy and Aerith heard the noise in the room next to them and wondered what was happening. Aerith ran to the door, opened it very quickly, and gasped at what she saw.

"Run you guys!" She called out to them. "Run to the Third District! It'll be safe there. My friends and I will take care of everything here. Just go!"

"Might as well." Donald said to Goofy, "Something tells me that we should."

"Ok A-yuk." Goofy went.

Sora ran through the dark ally ways for a bit till that cloaked figure that he saw when he fought the Darkside appeared in front of him. Sora can see that this figure was quite small.

"What is up with people popping up in front of me? I don't have time for this!" Sora complained.

"It's the only way to get your attention." The cloaked snapped back.

"Well there are other ways." Sora explained.

"No there isn't." The cloak figure said in that hands-on-hips pose, "You are too air headed to pay attention to your surroundings."

"Nuh-uh." Sora argued.

The cloaked figured sighed, "I stood over there waving at you, but you just ran past me like I wasn't there."

"You stood there waving at me?" Dim-brain Sora asked.

"Yes, I just said that." The figure pointed out.

"Are you going to attack me, are you a heartless, and are you after my keyblade?" Sora said in caution.

The figure stared at him. "No, I'm not a heartless, I don't want your keyblade, it chose you and it will only be used by you, and I'm not going to attack you. If I were, you would have been a goner in your little town. Gee, you met me there."

Sora gave a pout. "Hey, I'm not a weakling and did I meet you before?"

"Does 'Darkside' ring a bell?" asked the figure.

"Hey! You appeared when I was face to face with that Darkside! Say! Have you seen my friends Riku or Kairi? And do you know what happen to my home world?" Sora questioned. Now since there were no noises, Sora can tell that this figure has a higher pitched voice then he or Riku. In fact this figure had a younger voice, in a strange way.

"Your world disappeared." The figure said shaking his head and after a pause told him, "No, I don't know where Riku is and…. Um … I haven't seen Kairi."

"Oh, well… Why are you here and why does you cloak look more like a blanket wrapped around you?" asked Sora feeling a little bit more comfortable but still ready to pull out the Keyblade.

"I just appeared to tell you to go that away." The figure told him pointing towards a road with a sign saying 'Third District that way'. "You'll meet up with some help there. And yes this cloak is a blanket wrapped around me."

"How do I know I can trust you? How do I know that you are not lying to me just to set up a trap?" Sora glared.

"How do you know that I am lying?" The figure said, "Kid, here's something to remember; to believe me or not, it's up to you."

Sora just looked stern at this mysterious figure. "I'm not a kid. I'm fourteen years old. Speak for yourself."

"Compared to my age, you are a kid. But here's some advice. Even in the darkest of lies, the truth lays hidden. Basically meaning that the truth can not be hidden for long, it sticks right out. But you have to look real hard for it and know that it's the truth. You might want to remember that if you can." The figure said. "But now's not the time for chit-chat you better get going. So what will it be? Go to the Third District or run around aimlessly? Oh and take this. It's a book with a list of heartless and their names."

And then the figure disappeared after tossing the book to him.

Sora grabbed the book and looked around. "Should I do as this person says or go my own path…? And how old is this guy anyways?"