Chapter XXV; Love
Yuki watched the desert town move beneath her feet. People were rebuilding after a sand storm that had caused a lot of damage. Beside her was Zakey. The older Heartless looked bored by the simple town.
"They look so calm. Like they don't know how easily it could all vanish." Zakey said. She had focused on who appeared to be the leader. A man with black hair and dark eyes wearing what looked like common clothing. It was strange that royalty wasn't leading this effort.
"Is that a bad thing?" Yuki asked, watching their efforts. They did look rather happy for having to rebuild most of their city. Many were laughing and joking amongst each other. They all listened to one person, who also seemed too relaxed.
"Well, depends on their luck." Zakey answered honestly. She leaned against a wall of the city. "In this case I'd say it's a very bad thing."
"What do you mean?" Yuki asked. She caught sight of a pretty woman wearing blue clothes that looked far more expensive than what the rest of the people were wearing. Zakey noticed her and smiled.
"They're far too open for an attack." Zakey said. She snapped her fingers and sent forth a large group of Heartless. Bandits, Flare Notes, Large Armors, and Scarlet Tangos all began wreaking havoc on the town, sending the people into a panic.
Yuki watched surprised Zakey had done that so suddenly, with no warning. The people of the town ran away from the Heartless, grouping together behind one or two people with weapons. The Heartless didn't bother with them though, they went straight towards the important looking woman. The woman cowered away from them, but she didn't try running, which Yuki thought was a stupid move.
"Jasmine!" The man in charge yelled. He ran at the Heartless, pushing them aside until he stood in front of the woman. He held a blade of some kind in front of him and used it to push back the Heartless. Yuki frowned watching him. He shouldn't have bothered saving her, that put him at too much risk.
"Why did he go to protect the girl? His chances of survival are better if he just runs away." Yuki asked. Zakey laughed a little, still watching the town that was now in chaos.
"Love is a strange and foolish thing." Zakey said simply. Yuki looked up at her confused.
"What's love?" Yuki asked. Zakey laughed again and rubbed her temple. She shook her head smiling.
"That's the million Munny question for us Heartless." Zakey said calmly. "It's something so great that even with a heart it's hard to understand. So naturally us without a heart can never hope to try and understand it." She paced a little away from the wall. She leaned forward trying to get a closer look at the man and woman. "All we know is love makes you do stupid things, put your life out on the line for whoever it is you love."
Yuki looked away from Zakey, back to the town. The Heartless were slowly getting killed off by the few with weapons. Yuki knew they would be back before long since none of the people here had keyblades. That would solve the Heartless deficiency this world had been having lately. So that meant their mission was finished.
"We can return now. Unless you'd like to stay for some reason?" Zakey said. Yuki frowned, considering her options. She could leave, but she would still have unanswered questions.
"I think I should kill a couple of the Heartless. Just to get a little closer to Kingdom Hearts." Yuki said. Zakey smiled at her.
"Good plan kiddo, with you working so hard we'll get Kingdom Hearts in no time." Zakey said, brushing back a piece of her purple hair. Yuki nodded at her with a fake smile. But then again, weren't all Heartless smiles fake?
"Have fun. And don't kill all the Heartless." Zakey said turning and summoning a dark corridor. She disappeared into the dark corridor. Yuki looked back to the town. Most of the people were gone. The only two left were the man and woman. They were surrounded by Heartless. Yuki jumped from her location and landed behind the Heartless. In only a few seconds they were all gone, only crystal pink hearts floating in the sky.
The man and woman looked at Yuki surprised. She ignored them and just watched the hearts fly into the sky. The man looked at the woman cautiously before stepping forward.
"Thank you, but why did you help us?" The man asked. "And who are you?" Yuki looked at him blankly, still thinking.
"That's a question I'd like to know the answer to as well." Yuki said. "But I helped you because I wanted to." She continued. The man frowned at her.
"You don't remember who you are?" He asked. Yuki laughed a little and shook her head.
"Oh no," she said. "I don't think I ever knew in the first place." The man looked at her shocked. He looked back at the woman who smiled softly. She came up next to the man and crouched down a little to be eye level with Yuki.
"You're very brave fighting the Heartless like that. We owe you our lives." The woman said. Yuki looked away from her, rubbing the back of her head.
"Not really. They can't hurt me usually." She said sheepishly. The woman gave her a quizzical look, unsure of Yuki's meaning.
"Well, we still have to thank you. Is there anything we can do?" She asked. Yuki looked at them both in thought. She looked at the woman. The woman was special somehow. But Yuki couldn't put her finger on what it was exactly.
"I don't need anything." Yuki said. She looked at the man. "You should protect her from the Heartless. Something about her attracts them in swarms. That should be easy since you love her, right?" Yuki asked. The man stepped back surprised, rubbing the back of his head.
"Is it really that obvious a kid can see it?" He asked. Yuki shrugged.
"Well you did something stupid to protect her. That's love right?" She asked. The woman laughed a little.
"Not quite. It's a lot more. It's when you're very close to someone, and always want to be with them. You want to protect them too." The woman explained. Yuki frowned looking at the ground.
"That doesn't make sense to me, but ok." Yuki said. She turned to walk away.
"Wait, you haven't told us your name." The woman called after her. Yuki turned and looked at them.
"It's Yuki." She said simply. The woman nodded.
"Thank you Yuki. I'm Jasmine and this is Aladdin. Anytime you're here and need help, just ask us." Jasmine said with a smile. Yuki nodded turning her back and walking away.
*3*
When Yuki arrived at the clock tower Roxas and Axel were already there. She sat down beside Roxas without a word, still thinking about her mission and the two she had met. A few minutes later X and Y showed up, dropping down next to Yuki.
"I have a strange question." Roxas said to the group. Yuki looked over at him curiously.
"Never stopped you from asking before." X commented earning a glare from his sister. Y hit her brother then turned back to Roxas.
"Go ahead and ask. We'll see if we have an answer." Y said. Roxas smiled at her a little and nodded.
"What's love?" Roxas asked. X looked at him in shock, while Y's cheeks became dusted with pink. Yuki looked at Roxas in total shock. Had he been reading her mind?
"'Scuse me?" Axel asked looking at Roxas. Roxas looked down at the ground like he was embarrassed.
"I found out about love on my mission today. That's it's something that's really powerful." Roxas said. Everyone looked away from him thinking. Axel was the first to answer.
"Yeah, I suppose that's true." He agreed. "But it's not something we'll ever know about." He said. Roxas looked at him in question.
"Why not?" He asked. Yuki looked down.
"You need a heart to love." Yuki said. Roxas turned his attention to her. She didn't look up to meet his eyes.
"Right Snowy. Hearts are mandatory for love." Axel agreed, pointing towards Yuki with his ice cream.
"But what is it?" Roxas asked.
"It's a really special connection between two people." Y said softly. "You want to be with them all the time and you'd do anything to protect them." She explained glancing back towards the others. X was looking at her with concern.
"So, like best friends?" Roxas asked. Axel shook his head.
"Close, but not quite." Y replied. Roxas frowned looking down at the ground. It was silent for a brief second. But it was enough time for Yuki to think.
She wasn't sure exactly what love was, but she knew it was strong. A connection. Maybe it was like the connection to the people in her dreams. Even losing her heart hadn't separated them. Or maybe it was something else. She glanced at each one of her friends trying to decide if she really 'loved' any of them. She shook her head to brush off the thought. It wasn't possible. But still, she felt maybe, if she had a heart, the connection might grow between her and one of them.
"First they'll make your heart skip beats and then they'll make your insides ache until you forget the difference between love and hate." X said out into the silence. Yuki didn't bother trying to understand him.
*3*
Day 171- What's Love?
Today I had to go to Agrabah with Zakey. While we were there we saw a guy try to fight off a large group of Heartless to protect a girl. Zakey said love makes people do stupid stuff like that. She also said Heartless can never hope to understand love.
Roxas asked about it at the clock tower. Axel said basically the same thing. Y explained it as some kind of connection. I'm really confused.
*3*
Yuki sat on the white table watching Naminé draw like she always did. Her mission had again been to find away into the mansion, hoping she'd have more luck than the first time. Yuki had gladly gone on this mission, she liked being with Naminé.
This time Naminé was drawing a brown haired boy with a duck and dog. They were on a winding path that led through a grassy expanse. They looked like they were running, but Yuki couldn't see where they were running to. Yuki watched silently, just thinking. A thought occurred to her watching Naminé draw.
"Hey Nami." Yuki said. Naminé stopped drawing and looked up at her. "That boy, is he the one who's memory you have to fix?" She asked. Naminé looked down at her feet and nodded. She thought for a second before speaking.
"I have to fix his memories that were scattered from his time in Castle Oblivion. I'm trying to put everything back the way it was, but I'm noticing some of his memories were taken even before he reached Castle Oblivion. Those were the memories that he had of you." Naminé explained. Yuki looked at her surprised she had said that much. She never explained anything she said.
"Do you know why?" Yuki asked softly, though she didn't expect an answer. To her surprise Naminé did answer.
"There's something about you that's, not really Heartless. Someone was trying to keep you away from the other Heartless, so they hid you and took away any memory anyone ever had of you." She said. "But what makes you so special I don't know." Naminé looked up to Yuki. Her eyes looked almost afraid. Yuki smiled at her.
"Thanks Nami." Yuki said. Naminé nodded and went back to her drawings. Yuki stood and paced around the room, looking at the images on the wall. She came to a stop by the one with X talking to the boy. She glanced at Naminé. "What's this one?" Yuki asked. Naminé looked up at her.
"He met a Heartless named X while in Castle Oblivion. That Heartless tried to clue him into the Nobodies plan to use him." Naminé replied. Yuki frowned. X hadn't mentioned that. But then again, X didn't mention a lot. Yuki continued her pacing coming to a picture of the brown haired boy and Roxas.
"What about this one?" Yuki asked. Naminé looked up at the image then shook her head.
"I can't tell you about that one." Naminé said. Yuki nodded and continued pacing, asking about some of the drawings. Sometimes Naminé would explain. Other times she just shook her head. Yuki walked around the entire perimeter of the room, asking about each drawing. From it she gathered a story of what this boy had gone through.
"This kid is a hero, isn't he?" Yuki said in awe. Naminé thought a minute before replying.
"That's up to you." She said simply. Yuki looked at her with a look that read 'really'. Naminé laughed a little returning to her drawing. Yuki returned to her place on the side of the table.
"What happened to the other two that were with you in Castle Oblivion?" Yuki asked suddenly. Naminé looked at her a little confused.
"Which two?" Naminé asked.
"That man and the boy." Yuki asked. Naminé looked at her sketch pad.
"DiZ is around the manor somewhere. He's probably in the pod room where he's sleeping." Naminé said. "The boy isn't here. He's trying to slow the organizations and get the memories I need to finish." She continued. Yuki furrowed her eyebrows together.
"Wait, this other boy is the organization imposter?" Yuki asked. Naminé nodded in reply. Yuki gritted her teeth together. "He hurt Xion." Yuki said. Naminé was silent, not acknowledging Yuki's comment for several minutes.
"He was friends with you too." Naminé whispered. "He's just trying to help his best friend." Yuki looked at her thinking. She sighed looking towards the ground.
"I guess if something like this happened to one of my friends I'd do the same to help them." Yuki stated with a shrug. Naminé nodded. Yuki again went silent, thinking.
The organization imposter who was causing so much trouble was just trying to save his friend. That wasn't so bad. It was actually understandable. As she had said, she would do the same. But still, the fact that she knew him bothered her. If he was her friend how had she forgotten? If they were friends she shouldn't have forgotten him, not for anything. But maybe that's why her memories were fighting so hard to return.
Footsteps dragged Yuki out of her thoughts once more. Looking out the window, Yuki saw the last light of day fading.
"Looks like I gotta go. I'll see you sometime soon Nami." Yuki said before summoning a dark corridor and leaving once again.
*3*
Day 172- Naminé,
I spent the day with Naminé again since my mission was to investigate the mansion. I had to tell them there was nothing there. This time she told me a little more. She's fixing the memory of one of the intruders of Castle Oblivion. She said we used to be friends but someone stole those memories. She also said something about me wasn't really Heartless. I didn't ask her about it though.