Okage Hearts

Chapter 2

Nope. Still own nothing. Blast! And I thought for sure sending the fruit basket would help. Also, in my story, I will be having Julia less… Well, you'll see. Oh, and I didn't really have a reason for giving the bottle the name I did. It just happened

Entering the town, Ari saw his friend and crush Julia standing by the gate, facing the opposite direction.

"Hey, Julia," he said in his usual quiet way. As with everyone else, she didn't notice him, despite the fact that she was standing there doing absolutely nothing, so he tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to jump into the air in surprise.

"Ari! You scared me!" she said, playfully glaring at the boy before a cheerful smile came across her face as she said, "So, what's new?"

"Well, I'm out here getting bread since my sister tricked my mom into giving me her chore, then I ran into a Ringmaster, oh, yeah, the circus is going to be performing tomorrow, who gave me a giant key with a sword hilt, which is what I'm holding right now. than that, I suppose things are going well. What about you?" he responded, wondering whether she had even heard him.

"I'm fine," she responded, "I haven't really done anything important today, though. I've really just been hanging out here. So, what does the giant key do? Wait. The circus is in town? I've got to tell everybody!"

With that, the boy's friend ran off, forgetting all about the key, leaving Ari alone to go get the bread.

As he entered the bakery, the baker smiled and said, "Hello, Ari. I take it your mother sent you for the bread."

"Yes, ma'am," Ari responded. The baker was a nice woman. She would always listen to Ari, and would just tell him to speak up rather than change his entire personality.

"Here you go," the baker said, handing him the bread, "So, I heard there's a circus in town tomorrow. Are you going to ask Julia to go with you?"

"…" he replied, struck speechless. He couldn't think of a single way to respond to that.

"Ah, why don't you go try?" the baker asked, "You never know; she might say yes. Well, go on. Say hi to the family for me."

"I will ma'am."

With that, the boy walked off, planning to ask his friend to go with him to the circus. And what luck! There she was, right at the gates of the village again.

"Um, Julia…" he said, trying to get her attention.

"Yes, Ari?" she asked, turning to face him, an act so rare from pretty much everyone that it surprised him. Eventually, he regained his wits to ask her, "W-would you like to go to the circus with me tomorrow."

When she heard this, her face softened, taking on an apologetic appearance, which did not bode well. Then, she gently said, "I'm so sorry, Ari. Someone else already asked me, and I accepted. Maybe next time…?"

"Uh, sure," he said, trying to sound rather nonchalant about the entire situation, even though he was very disappointed, "Well, I've got to get going."

"Okay," she responded hesitantly, "Goodnight Ari."

"Goodnight, Julia," he replied as he walked out of the village gates to get home before it got dark.

Ari got home on time, ate his dinner, and went to bed. He really hadn't expected her to say yes, but it still hurt. Still, it could have been worse. She could have laughed at him or even said no in a rude way.

The next morning came. He was bored, and didn't really have anything to do. Maybe he could go around with the key and see just what he could do with it. He reached for it, only for Annie to walk in and grab it, asking, "What does this do?"

Suddenly, as Annie began to leave the room to see what this new thing did, the key vanished from her hands and appeared into Ari's hands.

"Well, I suppose it comes when I want it," he said, giving Annie a completely blank expression on his face.

Much to Ari's pleasure, Annie hurried out of the room, trying to put as much distance between herself and the weird key as possible. Ari smiled to himself. It scared away Annie. He liked this key already.

Ari wandered around, dragging his key behind him as he walked. So far, all it did was return to his hand when he left it alone for too long, but he was sure that it did something else. What magic key did only one thing that didn't even involve it's key shape…?

"That's it," he whispered, realizing what the key might be able to be used for. He just needed to find a keyhole, preferably not to a person's door, or to something that someone else owned. Eventually, the boy came across a chest covered with dust. Pointing his key at it, he said "Open."

To his surprise, that trick actually worked, as the key sent a beam of light out of its tip. The beam went into the keyhole, and Ari heard the telltale click of a lock opening inside the chest. Opening the chest, Ari found a note, which only said the word "Keyblade." Looking at the key in his hand, Ari realized that the key must be this Keyblade that the note mentioned, as he doubted that there could be anything that could possibly be described as a Keyblade.

Pleased that his key had a name and a function, he began to make his way home. On the way, he saw Julia headed to get an early glimpse of the circus. She flashed him a friendly smile, which he returned with a wave, and they both continued on their ways.

When Ari got home, he found his father was polishing the black bottle, trying to read some inscription on the bottom. When Ari got close, his father noticed him and said, "Son, how would you like to hear what I think this bottle is?"

"Um, I was kind of planning to go the circus," Ari responded, knowing that if his father started now, he would not finish for a long time.

"Great!" his father said, clearly not listening to him, "Now, I believe that this is Ansem's Bottle. You see, Ansem the wise was a brilliant sorcerer who was also a king for a long time who…"

And so the speech went on for a very long time, throughout which Ari kept feeling worried, since the circus would only be open for a set amount of time. Eventually his father said, "And that is it, in a nutshell. Do you understand?"

"More than I thought I'd ever care to," Ari responded not quite sure if that would ever be important.

"That's great!" his father exclaimed, "I'm so glad we could have this talk. Well, why don't you go to the circus, now?"

Once those words were uttered, Ari was out the door, rushing to the circus. Eventually he got there, only to see that everybody was already leaving the tent. Then, Ari saw Julia walking out with the guy she promised to go with.

"Oh, Ari, you should have been here!" she said cheerily, "It was a beautiful sight. There were lions, tigers, jugglers, trapeze artists…!"

"I wish I'd been able to see it," he responded blankly, "It sounds like it was fun."

"You are definitely going to the next one though," she told him.

"Okay, bye, you two," he responded. He still needed to find Annie, who had escaped their father's lecture and went to the circus. Suddenly, he heard a loud scream. It was Annie.

Running, he found a small black thing with golden eyes attempt to attack her, but was beaten to the punch by a ghost. When Annie passed out, the shadow creature ran away, as if it sensed something wrong. Ari ran to his sister's side and lifted up her unconscious form, carrying her to the house, where he explained everything to his parents and grandparents.

Once Annie was in her room, everybody sat down and waited for he to get up. There wasn't really anything else they could do for now.

When she got up she looked around and, seeing everybody in her room looking relieved to see her wake up she opened her mouth and asked, "At-whay are-yay ou-yay oing-day in-yay y-may oom-ray? Ah-yay! Y-whay am-yay I-yay alking-tay ike-lay is-thay?"

Everyone paused, and stared at her in surprise.

"Oh, no!" their mom shouted, "She's got the Pig Latin Curse!"

"How can we deal with this?" their Grandfather asked.

"I'm-yay ared-scay!" Annie shouted.

"I have an idea," Ari's father said. "Ansem was a wise man and a sorcerer. Maybe he can help her! We need to open the bottle. Okay, everybody, let's go downstairs in order to do the spell that a book I have says is needed to open the bottle."

"Um, I'm not sure this is such a good idea…" Ari said, getting concerned with how easily the idea came up. Despite the fact that he had said this a bit louder than usual, still nobody listened to him. As such, he followed the rest downstairs leaving the key with Annie.

Ari's father had set up a circle in the middle of the living room, surrounded by candles with the bottle in the center. He said the spell exactly as the book ordered it to be said, and sure enough, the bottle opened, revealing… a horned humanoid ghost that was very well dressed? Whoever he was, Ari was certain that he wasn't this Ansem.

"Hello," he smiled, or at least he would have if he had a visible mouth, "I am James, the butler of his Royal Highness, Evil King Stanley Hihat Trinidad the XIV, the reincarnation of Evil King Gohma. He will not be coming out yet, as he has no form to speak of at the moment, having been sealed in the bottle for so long now, causing him to lose a good deal of his power."

"Um, hello, James," Ari's father said, "We came seeking help. Our daughter is gravely ill, and she needs some help."

"I wouldn't call it a grave…" Ari began before he was cut off by a voice coming from the bottle.

"I will make you a deal," the voice shouted, "If one of you allows me to use your shadow for my form, I will help your daughter."

"Okay," Ari's father said.

"I'll try out," his mother said.

"So will I," his grandfather said.

"Uh huh, sure, yes," Ari's grandmother said.

"And what of the boy?" James asked, eying Ari curiously.

"I still don't think…" he began before his father volunteered him for the job, as well.

Two ghosts flew out of the jar and began examining the family, judging each of their shadows. Eventually they judged Ari.

"Oh," they murmured in their ghostly language, "This one is greatly overshadowed. He would be perfect."

Hearing them, James announced, "We have a winner! The winner of this contest is the boy! What's your name?"

"Ari," he responded, not liking the sound of this victory.

"Ari," he said, as if getting the feel of the name, "Fitting, very fitting."

Suddenly, a shadow rose out of the jar and moved into Ari's shadow.

"Ah, yes!" a voice behind him suddenly shouted, "I am free, again."

Ari turned around and saw that his shadow rose from the ground and looked like a flat version of that thing that attacked Annie. Suddenly, the Keyblade appeared in his hand.

"Slave! What is this?" the Evil King asked, "I am the king of shadows, yet my servant wields the Keyblade which serves the light?"

Suddenly, James stepped in, evidently not wanting to have anyone killed, and said, "Your Majesty, clearly the light is not moving against you if it allows its champion to serve you. Perhaps it sees you as a powerful ally to have?"

"I see," the Evil King said, "Very well. Now, we must begin our conquest of the world!"

"Now I know the universe hates me," Ari said flatly, "I get a key that evidently serves the light while my family sold me into slavery to a king who rules the dark. This'll be fun."

"Um, Evil King Stanley…" Ari's father began before the Evil King cut him off.

"Just Stan will do for the moment," Stan replied.

"Um, Evil King Stan, we made a deal…"

"That we did, and Evil Kings must always keep their promises," Stan replied, "Very well. Take me to her."

When Stan got up to Annie's room with the entire group, he waved his hand over her, and said "There. She's healed."

Annie then spoke again, ending the peace and quiet that Ari was already getting used to by shouting, "I can talk again!"

"That's too bad," Ari mumbled under his breath, unheard by even Stan, who was attached to him. Then, when Annie got up, to everybody's surprise her shadow was pink.

"What happened to my shadow?" she asked turning to face Stan.

"Well, when I used my magic on you, it left my mark on you, a pink shadow," Stan replied. Then, getting a bit defensive, he added "I promised to fix your voice, but I didn't say I wouldn't change your shadow's color."

Deciding that it was late and that nothing they said would persuade Stan to fix Annie's shadow, everyone decided to turn in for the night.