Hearts of Monsters. Chapter 4.
Authors note: Hello folks, good to see you again. All right, before we begin I'd like to let you know real quick that I'm trying something a little different with my writing style. Before now I've always written my stories with long paragraphs, but this time I'm going to shorten them go with a new paragraph with each side of the conversation and try to make things a little easier to read. Now with that out of the way, I hope you enjoy.
"We need to talk," Ruby said with a harsh tone toward Sora, "who are you, what are you doing here, who were those people in the cloaks and what were those creatures?"
Sora stood there for a moment trying to think of where to start, until he settled on Ruby's first question. "Well, my name's Sora," Sora answered with a slightly meek voice, feeling more then a little intimidated by the girl, "and I'm here to complete the Mark of Mastery test."
"Mark of Mastery test?" Ruby questioned raising a brow, "What's that?"
"It's this test that'll earn me the Mark of Mastery, and with the Mark, I'll be recognized as a Keyblade master," Sora explained trying not to sound too intimidated.
"And what you have to do to complete this test?" Ruby questioned further.
"Well, as far as I can tell, you just have to complete whatever task is given to you," Sora answered.
"And that is?" Ruby asked sounding a little annoyed.
Picking up on Ruby's thinning patience, Sora answered, "I was told that some trouble was coming this way, so I was sent here to figure out what it was and stop it," he explained in a rush.
"Well, had I not seen what I did, I'd say you are full of it," Ruby stated crossing her arms. "But, since I did see it, I somehow believe you," she admitted putting emphasis on 'somehow'. "Now that I understand who you are and what you're doing," Ruby continued after a brief pause, "I don't suppose you could tell me who those two in the cloaks were?"
"They looked like they were with of Organization XIII," Sora answered simply. "I don't know what they're up to, but I have a strong feeling they're involved with whatever I'm supposed to be stopping."
"What exactly are you basing that on?" Ruby crossed her arms.
"Intuition, I guess," Sora answered simply, "Plus this wouldn't be the first time they were involved with something that spelled trouble for everyone else," he added.
Ruby stood there for a moment to process what the teenager told her, "It sounds like you have prior experience with these people," she stated.
"I've run into them a few times before."
"So you've dealt with those two before," the brunette said.
"No, these guys are new," Sora said, "I fought and beat most of the organization, but I've never seen any members who could use Keyblades," he explained.
Ruby thought about what the boy told her for a little longer, 'Keyblade' it sounded vaguely familiar, she gave an exasperated sigh, "All right, so all we know about those two in the hoods is that they're a mystery, what about those creatures she was ordering around?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Sora said while scratching the back of his head, "they looked like Heartless, but those kind of Heartless aren't supposed to be covered in chains, and even their symbol was different," he explained to the girl.
"Heartless? Those were Heartless, they actually exist?" Ruby said with great surprise.
"You know about them?" Sora asked, taken a little aback at the brunette's reaction.
"Only through stories and rumors, 'creatures without hearts, who hunt and steal the hearts of others'," Ruby recited these words as if they came from a very grim fairy tale, "you mean to tell me that these are the same Heartless?"
"I guess," Sora shrugged, "but like I said, those Heartless were different, they shouldn't have been covered in chains, and I've never seen them follow orders like that. Except for Ansem and a couple of other people," he added.
There was a long silence, Ruby's head was left buzzing with so many questions but almost no answers, what is Organization XIII? What were they doing here? And if what Sora claimed was true what was this imminent threat? All questions that will be answered in due time, but until such time Ruby was here, and she thought of something as she looked at the spiky haired teenager. "What are you doing for a living situation?"
Taken aback by the sudden change of topic all Sora could manage was, "Huh?"
"Where are you living while you're investigating?"
"Why do you ask?" Sora asked raising an eyebrow.
"This school is pretty far from any town, let alone an inn or hotel, and you can't have come here in a vehicle, I've been at the front gate all morning and someone would've noticed a car or motorcycle by now," Ruby explained to the rather confused teenager. "Therefore, I believe that you came here today which is why I ask, where are you living?"
Sora pondered it for a few moments, he hadn't given any thought to what he would do if this lasted more than one day, these endeavors usually happened pretty quickly. "I, er… I haven't really given it much thought," he admitted scratching the back of his head.
Ruby gave an exasperated sigh and looked back at the young boy with much softer eyes. "I have a couch and some extra blankets at my place, you can stay there until we find a better arrangement," she informed Sora to which the boy's eyes widened as a smile crept upon his face.
"You would do that, for me?" Sora asked.
Ruby smiled and placed her hands on her hips, "Don't get the wrong idea," she chuckled lightly, "I can't very well leave you out here with a clear conscience."
"Even so, thanks a lot," Sora said with a big grin.
"Come on, let's go, I'm exhausted after today," Ruby gestured for Sora to follow, and the boy trailed the brunette.
"Exhausted?" Sora said as he followed the girl, "what was so exhausting?" he asked out of general curiosity.
"It's a long story."
Aaaaaand… Done. Well that was this chapter, I'm sorry it took so long, but I've been working on some other projects and I've been slacking off more than I'd like to admit. It might be the new writing style but this one felt relatively long, speaking of which, this was my first time writing a story like this, and if any of you have some advice on how I can improve on this it would be much appreciated. On a completely unrelated note, if any of you are fans of the Devil May Cry franchise, I published a fanfiction for said video game a while ago, but it hasn't been getting much of a response, if I could trouble you for a moment of your time would you be willing to look up the story "dMc The Hunter Rising" or shared with some friends, I would be very grateful. Now, apologies and advertisements aside, thank you guys so much for reading my stories really means a lot to me, and until the next chapter comes out, Favorite, Follow and any comments you have in the comments section and if you liked this check out my other work. See ya folks, and thank you.