Azami stepped angrily from the corridor that took her from the King's castle and sent a powerful kick at nearby debris. The rubble crumbled pitifully under the force of her attack.
"Looks like somebody is mad," an obnoxious voice laughed from somewhere surrounding her. She growled lowly under her breath and attempted to ignore the jeering voice. However, she found the task to be more difficult than she thought for the person the voice belonged to appeared before her, an equally obnoxious smile eminent on their face.
"What's your rush, Azami?" a brown haired boy asked, "I just want to know where my favorite little trouble maker has been this whole time, we were so worried!" His unruly hair hung wildly from his head, his bangs framing the angular face of the cocky male. His almond shaped brown eyes danced mischievously in their sockets as he took in Azami's irritated form. His clothing consisted of a faded green jacket with dingy, white fur around the collar over a plain orange shirt and a pair of long, tan cargos. His shoes were black and scuffed.
Azami scoffed loudly at the boy's words. "What do you want, Yukio?" she growled. She was beyond tired and wanted to get some sleep. Needless to say Yukio was interrupting her plans.
It might have been her imagination but it seemed that Yukio's smile increased tenfold. "Aw, don't be like that Azami!" He swung from his perch and landed lightly before her. "Kimi sent me to get you, seems like everyone wants to have a little chit-chat about something or another, I wasn't really paying that much attention."
Azami watched the disgusting male dig unabashedly into his ear to pluck a wad of ear wax from his ear. Flicking the wax from his finger he proceeded to dig into his other ear for more buried treasure.
"I don't find your lack of attention anything short of a surprise," she muttered.
"Aw, Azami, you say the nicest things to me!" Yukio teased.
Azami bit her tongue to prevent a string of curses from escaping and picked up her pace, creating some distance between her and the infuriating brunette.
"Why'd they send you of all people?" she muttered.
"I volunteered!" Yukio explained. "Of course they didn't think that was such a great idea, especially Kanaye. They said we wouldn't make it as far as the outer ring but look, we're almost there!" The energetic brunette rushed past her and towards the towering ruins before them.
The crumbling castle Azami and her friends called home towered pitifully before her, a former shadow of what it used to be. Many of the bricks that still held the castle together were dark with mold and eroded severely from the many years of rain and wind that swept across the land. The landscape was gray and dismal and stretched for as far as the eye could see and probably even longer. The sun was perched on the horizon, forever still in its position of switching with the dark moon. Instead of its rays being a boisterous yellow that brightened the land it was a dreary gray that decorated everything it touched in the depressing color.
"Hurry up slowpoke!" Yukio's taunting voice called out, breaking Azami from her reverie. "You've seen these old ruins countless times before, there's no need to get all awestruck now!" Flashing her a teeth grinding grin, the boy disappeared into the ruins. Reluctantly, Azami followed him.
The sun's ray's cut through the many broken windows that lined the passageway leading towards the Meeting Chambers. Cracked paintings hung from the walls, their pictures hard to decipher after all the years of abandonment. Azami imagined that at one point in this world's history that this castle used to be the pride of the people, especially the descendants of the first King whose hands built the crumbling beauty she and her friends now occupied. Azami envisioned countless people, all dressed in their finest clothes walking up and down the halls she and Yukio now treaded, each admiring the beautiful pictures that were now mere skeletons of what they used to be. She could hear the loud screams of laughter and joy that once echoed the now quite halls and soft patter of giggling children's feet as they ran away from their nannies. She had a strong feeling that these halls – these rooms – this castle had seen better, happier days but now….
"Well looks who finally decided to join us!" the enthusiastic voice of an all too familiar male exclaimed. Shaking her heard of her daydream Azami looked around to find that she was standing before a long table that sat could at least twenty four people but at the current moment only held six. The room Yukio had taken her to was large and relatively empty save for the long table and large window at the back of the room. Miraculously, this room remained intact; untouched by the various heartless that pillaged the castle countless times before their arrival. However, the room wasn't able to avoid time for mold was found in here too and the damp smell of something you couldn't identify.
"Azami! A lighter, chipper voice of a small girl exclaimed. A small petite figure hopped from their seat and bounded towards her, arms outstretched.
Azami sighed quietly and concentrated her energy into the soles of her feet. The small form sailed over her head as she disappeared into the floor. The figure would have hit the far wall behind Azami but they disappeared in a dark flash. They reappeared in their seat with another dark flash, grinning widely from ear to ear.
"Must we always wait on you before we begin our meetings, Azami," an irritated voice asked as she materialized before the group once more. When she carelessly shrugged her shoulders at the person's question they clenched their jaw tightly and began to furiously flip through the pages of the book in front of them.
"You all called this meeting for a reason," Azami said calmly, "Can we get on with it?" Without looking for a response she took a seat farthest away from the group, scowling when Yukio took it upon himself to take the seat beside hers.
"While out on patrol, Kioko and I came across an interesting sight," a low, steady voice spoke up. "Upon further inspection we found that it was a summon gem." Azami watched with wide eyes as a glowing green gem rolled towards her.
Jumping towards the delicate gem, she snatched it up and cradled it in her hand. She glared heatedly around the room. "Be careful with him!" Yukio laughed loudly at her words.
"What's gotten into you, Azami? It's just a stupid little gem!" As if to prove his point, he snatched the gem from her tight grip and held it high above his head out of her reach. "I bet if I drop this sucker he'll break into a million little pieces!" She watched with wide eyes as he made to drop the gem.
"Yukio!" a sharp, feminine voice cut through the air, "Stop fooling around and settle down so we can talk about why we're really here." The blonde male glared defiantly down the table at the bright burgundy eyes peeking over a rather large book. After a short silence he scoffed loudly and threw the gem carelessly in the girl's direction
Biting back a gasp, Azami watched the gem sail across the room before it landed safely in the hand of the girl. Azami watched the girl place the glowing gem in her jacket pocket before Azami turned her attention back to the matters at hand, whatever they were.
"You've gotten soft, Azami," a soft, low male voice cut through the silence. "Is something on your mind?" Azami's muscles tensed slightly at the words spoken.
"Why the sudden interest in me?" she asked through clenched teeth. Azami felt cornered and she didn't like that one bit. Her mind raced with possible ways of avoiding the oncoming conversation but her mind was drawing a blank.
"Because your recent behavior is jeopardizing everyone else. You leave for hours on end without telling anyone where you are and return hours or days later only to saunter off to bed. Kanaye is off on patrol without you as we speak; you know our rules for one of us going out by ourselves. Suspicions have arisen and we need them to be confirmed true or mere fallacy," the steady male voice from earlier explained. Azami jumped to her feet, angered by the words spoken.
"You doubt my loyalty?" she roared, slamming a fist onto the molding table. Azami glared around the room at the others, their faces cloaked in darkness.
"You give us no evidence not to," the steady voice countered. Azami bit back a low growl.
"What do I need to do in order to make you see where my loyalty lays?" she asked lowly, trying to hold back the anger clawing at the back of her throat. She caught Yukio's wide smirk at her question.
"Just the words we wanted to hear!" he exclaimed. A bubbly giggle erupted across the room at the blonde male's excitement.
"A few days ago Kimi stumbled across some interesting information that could prove troublesome to our future plans. It seems that there is a boy that wields some kind of key that destroys Heartless. He's taken down countless Heartless and he alone could be the unraveling of our little family. We want him eliminated," the steady male voice explained.
"You want me to eliminate him?" Azami asked, her face as hard as a stone. This could prove troublesome to her plans but she needed to remain calm, the last thing she needed was the rest of her group to get even more suspicious.
"Not right away," the voice admitted. "Present yourself as a friend and gain his trust. Let him suspect nothing of you or your true intentions and when he's let his guard down fully, take care of him!" Azami sensed the light smirk on the face belonging to the steady voice.
Nodding her head to show that she understood, Azami stood to her feet. "If this will get you guys off my back then I'll do it." Without another word she excused herself from the room, hiding the giddy smile trying to break across her face. Unbeknownst to her friends, they had made her job a little easier
Back in the council room six sets of eyes stared at the empty chair Azami had inhabited only moments before.
"I get the feeling she's up to something," the irritated female voice cut through the air. Her comment was followed by the sharp turning of a page in a book.
"Maybe someone should watch over her?" the chipper of the two female voices asked.
"Right now let's see how she does," the steady voiced male said.
Azami was up early the next morning. Careful not to disturb the others in the rooms surrounding hers, she slipped out of her window and disappeared into a corridor of darkness. Unbeknownst to her a pair of shining brown eyes watched her.
A smirk decorated his face as Azami's petite form disappeared into a corridor of darkness "Interesting," the mysterious male laughed. Sure to bring it up to the others later on, he slipped away from the window and went in search for something to entertain himself until some of the others woke up. Maybe if he played his cards right he could get in a few pranks on Kimi, Kioko and (if he was really lucky), Iwao or Ryuji before they woke up. Smiling at the thought, the prankster quickly set to work thinking of pranks that would have him rolling hours from now.
The Next Morning
"I'm surprised to see you all up so early," Azami said, the surprise evident in her tone. When she had come silently through the corridor she expected the castle to still be fast asleep but found to her pleasant surprise that Donald, Goofy, Riku, and Sora were up and ready to go.
"Sora kept us up most of the night with his excited babble," Donald quacked. He sent an accusatory glare the brunette's way. The boy chuckled sheepishly in response, scratching the back of his head.
"I just couldn't wait to see Leon and the others," he defended. "Sorry if I kept you up, Donald." The duck ignored the apology and muttered irritably under his breath. Azami laughed lightly.
"Will the King be seeing us off?" she asked.
"He told us to head off as soon as you got here," Riku spoke up. He made sure to keep his gaze downcast and his arms folded so as to show his displeasure. "He said that if he made it here before you arrived then he'd give us his best wishes but if not then to not wait up." She nodded at the boy's words.
"I guess it can't be avoided then," she sighed. Calling forth a small amount of darkness, Azami opened a corridor and turned to face the boys.
"We have to hurry quickly; Sora's light will attract a lot of Heartless to our location and with the size of the corridor we'll be overcome within seconds. I'll take up the rear; just keep going straight until you see the light and don't slow down for anything, understand?" Sora, Donald, and Goofy nodded obediently while Riku focused his gaze on more interesting things like…..his feet.
"Alright gentlemen, what are we waiting for?"
Riku was the first one to enter the corridor, followed closely by Donald, Goofy, and Sora. Taking a deep, calming breath Azami entered last, steeling her nervous nerves as the corridor closed behind her and the group was drowned in darkness.
The small group moved swiftly through the corridor without a word exchanged. Tension was running high and Azami had a feeling that something was approaching fast.
Chancing a glance behind her, Azami's eyes widened as the bulbous, yellows eyes of Heartless emerged from the darkness. Cursing silently, she stopped in her tracks and called forth her Heartless mask.
"Azami!" Sora exclaimed He was the first to notice that you had stopped as well as the oncoming Heartless. He called forth his Keyblade and prepared to assist the girl in the fight when Azami's protests reached his ears.
"Keep going! The faster you get out of here the better; I can handle a few Heartless!" Something flashed faintly in the direction of Azami, giving off a small light as it twisted around her nimble fingers. "Don't worry about me; I'll be right behind you!" With that said, she slid on her Heartless mask and lunged for the charging Heartless.
Landing before the charging Heartless, Azami managed to successfully stop their rampage. She watched with narrow eyes as the surrounding Heartless considered her large frame. To them her size didn't make sense; she had the face of a Shadow but her body was that of a Neo-Shadow…..was this some new breed spawned between the two?
One of the front most Heartless stepped forward, issuing a small challenge to Azami. With its untrusting gaze set upon the girl it began to cautiously circle her, searching for anything that could give away this new creature's true identity.
Azami stood perfectly still, her yellow eyes taking in the rest of the group. Doing a quick head count she knew that she wouldn't be able to take on all of them at once. If it came down to it she'd take down as many as she could before catching up to the others whom she hoped had made it safely to the other side.
The circling Heartless couldn't get its head around the creature before him. Its aura was that of darkness, its face was like its own, yet it had no claws or anybody disfigurement that assisted it in battle. Was this a real Heartless or…..
Azami acted swiftly, taking the Heartless behind her by surprise. Jumping away from its swiping claws Azami brought her wire forward and wrapped it rapidly around her attacker's neck. With prompt movement the small wires cut through the Heartless' neck, rendering it nothing more than air. Her sudden attack provoked some of the other Heartless to spring forth an attack of their own.
Dodging razor sharp claws, Azami took down each Heartless that dared attack her with perfected ease. With each twitch of a finger Heartless after Heartless fell until the blue haired girl stood victorious amongst the crowd of Heartless that opted to stand back and watch.
The remaining Heartless were smart enough to know when it was time to throw in the towel. They turned tail and disappeared into the darkness, allowing this new Heartless like creature to test its luck against the Keyblade master and his friends.
Smirking in triumph, Azami wrapped her small wires into a tight loop before pocketing them once more. Turning on her heels she rushed after the others, her bulbous, yellow Heartless eyes glowing in delight.
Sora and the others had safely made it out of the corridor and were now resting to catch their breath. After Azami had stayed behind to handle the Heartless the group didn't run into any more of them. As their breath slowly returned the corridor before them pulsed violently.
Jumping to their feet and calling upon their respective weapons they waited with tense bodies as something cloaked in darkness burst from the corridor. Bulbous, yellow eyes stared in curiosity at the tense males before chuckling loudly. Reaching up with a blackened hand the Heartless yanked at its face.
Relief flooded through Sora, Donald, and Goofy as the Heartless' face came off and reveled the face of a smirking Azami. With the mask now free of her face the darkness hugging her skin evaporated, leaving her pale skin in its wake.
"Glad to see everyone got out okay," Azami said, a little breathless. ."Well, here we are!" She looked around her surroundings with happiness, Sora, Donald, and Goofy doing the same.
The quaint houses and shops that surround the empty market place warmed Azami's heart as she walked slowly through the small town. She couldn't remember the last time she had walked these familiar streets and felt so at home.
"Well look who's here, and she's brought some very familiar faces!" the energetic, female voice of a certain female ninja called down to the group. Adverting her gaze upwards, Azami spotted the slim figure of the ninja known as Yuffie.
The ninja looked to be a few years older than Azami with short, dark hair that framed her smiling face. Her large violet eyes were shining as brightly as the wide smile on her face. Her skin tone was tan and her athletic build convinced many that she could take care of herself. Her clothes consisted of a regular black headband with white lining, an unzipped, dark grey combat vest with a black strap dangling from the right pocket overtop a navy blue tank top with white floral designs, a white wristband on her right wrist and a grey, fingerless glove on her left arm. Her dark shorts had black straps dangling from the left side and she wore black, knee-high socks with white stripes at the top underneath dark tan boots that are slightly shorter than her socks.
Jumping from her position on the wall towering over the group, she landed before Azami and enveloped the girl in a hug. "It's so good to see you again, Azami. It's been so boring without you here! Squall and Aerith don't know how to have fun like you do!" The hyperactive ninja squeezed Azami tightly to her body, cutting off most of Azami's oxygen.
Thankfully, the girl's death grip didn't last for long; once her attention was caught by Sora and the others she rushed to greet them. Gathering Sora, Donald, and Goofy into a big hug, the smiling ninja laughed joyously. "It's really good to see you guys too, Sora, Donald, Goofy! It's been ages!"
Sora laughed shakily in the ninja's tight grip. "It's good to see you too, Yuffie!" Donald quacked and struggled violently in the girl's arms.
"Let me go! Let me go!" the magician demanded. Giggling loudly, the female ninja quickly complied, taking no offense to the duck's harsh tone.
"You must be Sora's friend, Riku, right?" Yuffie asked, turning her attention to the silent male. She grabbed his hand and shook it enthusiastically. "Hiyah! My name's Yuffie, the Great Ninja!" Her bright smile grew as the white haired male stared in bewilderment at the female ninja.
"Uh…Riku," the boy said after gathering his wits. Yuffie giggled loudly before turning her attention once more to Azami.
"We've been waiting on you to arrive; you took longer than we expected," Yuffie informed. Azami shrugged her shoulders.
"Some lowlife Heartless slowed us down in the corridor, but we're here now." The female ninja nodded her head at Azami's words.
"Well, follow me then, Leon and the others are at Merlin's house. They want to tell you guys something about something or another, I wasn't really paying attention," she confessed. Azami chuckled slightly.
"Same old Yuffie." The female ninja shrugged carelessly.
"Who has time to listen to anything they say when they're only going to repeat it over and over? Besides, there are more important things to do then listen to Leon talk." The petite female jumped high in the air at the sound of a deep voice behind her.
"What were you saying about me, Yuffie?"
The female rolled her eyes, obviously not troubled by the male. "Hey, Squall." The group turned their gazes on a scowling man standing on the ledge above.
The man called Leon was a few years older than you. He had handsome, sharp features despite a distinctive scar which ran diagonally across the bridge of his nose. He had long, brown hair that brushed against his shoulders and side swept bangs. He wore a short-sleeved jacket with fur on the collar and bore red wings on the back and a red Griever symbol on each shoulder over a white undershirt. His pants were black with a vertical zipper going down the side of each leg and his shoes were black, zipper-lined. On his hands he wore black gloves and around his neck a silver Griever necklace. Three brown belts on his left forearm and three buckles on his right thigh made up some of his accessories along with two brown belts and two black ones around his hips, all of which were quite loose except for one, a black one worn properly around his waist. His eyes were blue and narrowed dangerously at Yuffie.
"That's Leon," he said gruffly. Yuffie waved off his words.
"Leon!" Sora, Donald, and Goofy shouted in unison. The three smiled happily up at the gruff looking man, a gesture which he returned but only slightly.
"We should probably get you all to Merlin and Cid," Leon said, turning his back on the small group, "they've been waiting impatiently to see all of you." He walked off, disappearing form view a moment later.
"We'll all be waiting at Merlin's for you guys. Take your time and see all the improvements we made to the town!" Yuffie suggested. Waving a quick goodbye she vanished from sight, presumably following Leon.
Sora grinned widely, throwing his arms behind his head as he took in the scenery. "I thought I'd never see this place again!"
"We can sight see later," Azami spoke up, "Right now our main focus is getting to Merlin's and seeing what he and Cid have for us" The smile faded from Sora's face and he deflated a little at the prospect of business before pleasure but he reluctantly trailed after the others as they headed to Merlin's house.
Preview:
"We should hurry inside," Azami muttered. She felt darkness growing around her, no doubt the Heartless converging in on them. Casting a look around the area she made sure none of them managed to sneak up on them. It was then that her eyes connected with Riku's. He could feel it too.