Sora was used to being accused. It came with the territory when things just went wrong around you.
It was a bit more novel when he had no idea who his accuser even was, though.
He could feel his brain getting wrung dry like a sponge, yet this girl was nowhere in his memory. And yet she somehow knew him.
Goofy and Donald looked just as perplexed as him, and the old man at the door grimaced.
"Relm, darling…" he turned to face her. "You know these, umm… gentlemen?"
"Not a clue!" The tween in the stairway cried. "But I've got a few words for spiky hair in the middle!"
"Relm, we shouldn't ask questions of strangers…" her Grandpa hinted, tilting his head to the left.
"A-actually…" Sora spoke up. "We've got a few questions for you too, if you wouldn't mind?"
"You're damn right you do!" This Relm poked out her tongue.
All eyes fell on her Grandpa. Immediately besieged, he just let out a groan. "I suppose I'll get some tea brewing. Is Mandrake okay with you?"
"S-sure!" Sora forced a smile. Tea was tea, right?
Grandpa waved them through, taking a seat at the head of a tiny circular table, made for exactly two people. One chair sat opposite him, festooned with brightly coloured stickers and paint splotches. That one was obviously Relm's, Sora muttered inwardly.
A few awkward moments passed, and the silence was as powerful as ever, so Grandpa eventually cleared his throat;
"Relm? Would you mind?"
"Would I mind what?"
"Making our guests feel a little more comfortable?"
"Why should I do it?"
"Because you're the one who wants to ask them questions, remember?"
"Fine…" She groaned, and stomped off into another room. Almost immediately there was the clatter of a door embedding itself into the wall, followed by a few metallic clangs, the splintering of wood, and a very audible curse.
"Language!" Grandpa yelled back. "We've got guests!"
"Oh, sorry~!" Relm seethed. She staggered into the dining room again, weighed down by three chairs. "I meant to say fu-"
"Enough!" Grandpa gave her a look, and she shut up instantly.
Sora shared a look with his compatriots. Donald looked as furious as ever, while Goofy was nervously tugging at his collar. Hopefully they weren't just wasting their time here. What questions could Relm possibly have?
"Here, lemme get that for you." He offered, grabbing one of the chairs.
"Oh, how kind of you, spiky hair~" she carried on in that silky tone. "Not like I could've used that ten minutes ago, no sir!"
"Manners, Relm." her Grandpa chided. "They are guests. They shouldn't have to carry things."
"You know who else shouldn't have to carry things? Little kids!" Relm countered instantly.
"Unless you want an old man like me to do it, yes they do!" Grandpa shook his head. "Oh, and don't forget the tea, Relm dear."
"Uuuugh!" Relm raged. The steam was practically coming from her ears as she dumped the two remaining chairs and clanged the teapot onto the stove. Red in the cheeks, she shuffled the chairs towards Donald and Goofy, then thudded down into her own with a face of thunder.
"That's better," Grandpa huffed victoriously. "Anyway, perhaps we should properly introduce ourselves. You've met Relm already. I'm her grandfather, Strago. The elder of the village, as you may have learned. Yourselves?"
Sora nodded gently. "I'm Sora, and these are Donald and Goofy."
"We can speak for ourselves!" Donald growled at him.
"Does it matter who introduces who?" Sora glanced over at Donald.
"I wanted to do it!" Donald hissed.
"Fine, you can do it next time," Sora's mouth went thin.
"Aha, looks like you have some family quarrels of your own." Strago's beard twitched. "See? Other families do it too, Relm."
His granddaughter just made a sour look at him as the teapot started whistling. Silently, she got up from her seat and started pottering about the kitchen. The whistling ceased, followed by a few clangs of china and metal on plastic, and Relm did a lap of the room, garnishing everyone with a drinking implement.
"We've only got four cups, so you get a glass." She muttered to Donald. "Sorry if that's weird."
"Why do I get the glass?" Donald glowered back.
"You…" Relm glanced at the three of them in turn. "Look the least clumsy."
Donald went from green with envy to glowing with pride in moments. "Heheh…" he smirked.
"You're absolutely right!" Goofy was practically throwing his tea around already. "Besides, Donald doesn't even like moogles!"
"Thats not true! They're just so condescending…" Donald grumbled into his glass.
"Anyway…" Strago cleared the air. "Now that the niceties are over with… didn't you have a question, Relm my dear?"
"Oh, you bet." Relm wasted no time. Sprinting up from her seat, she stalked away from Sora and across the room to a cupboard under the stairs. With a crazed look in her eye, she threw the door open and shouted, "Why?!"
At first, Sora had no clue how to respond. One syllable questions generally didn't carry much weight after all.
But when he saw a rough likeness of himself staring back at him, one thing became clear; she was definitely the magic source they were looking for.
As if it were drawn by crayons, the other him had a crude, wavy texture about it, with sky blue blobs for eyes and a brown mess for hair. It wasn't perfect, but it definitely looked like him. Yet they'd never met…
"See? It's the stupid hair!" Relm sized the two of them up with slicing gestures. "That's why he didn't come out right! I knew something was wrong!"
"Ah-ba-ba-bah!" The other Sora gurgled, waving its arms around.
"Nope! That's about right!" Donald snickered, and Sora glared at him.
"So err… your question is how you drew a picture of me, and it… came to life?" He frowned.
"Sorta," Relm shrugged, closing the door on the other Sora. It gave a tiny yelp in response. "See, I drew this idiot from a dream I had a few nights back. But then you show up, and I'm wondering how I could've dreamt up a real person!"
"Hmm." Sora put a hand to his chin. So drawings coming to life was normal for her? Dreaming about people she'd never met was also pretty odd, though…
"So I take it you don't have any magical dreaming abilities?" He grimaced.
Strago clicked his tongue, and Relm just gave him a look. "Oh c'mon Grandpa, the cat's out of the bag already."
Strago huffed in response. "I'm saying nothing, Relm."
She rolled her eyes. "No, I don't have any powers like that. Just the drawing thing."
"Huh. Another dead end." Sora said. "H-have you drawn anyone else lately? Like a girl with red hair, for example?"
"Well…" Relm tapped a finger against her lip. "I guess I could show you my doodles? You think they'll help?"
"Anything's better than nothing." Sora smiled. "Where do you keep 'em? Not all in that cupboard, right?"
"No, that's just where the failures go." Relm smirked.
"…oh."
"The good doodles are up in my room! Wanna come see?"
With a skip in her step, Relm was already halfway up the stairs by the time Sora had even risen from his chair. He shared a nervous look with Donald and Goofy, though neither of them seemed to share his.
"I'm watching you, youngster." Strago kept a sharp eye as he followed after her. The cream wallpaper of the kitchen blended seamlessly into a mint green for the upstairs, where four doors shared walls either side of them.
"That's Grandpa's room, don't mind the old man smell," Relm announced, "and that's the overflow, where I keep some of my extra paintings. And here's the main event!" She flounced, throwing her hands outwards.
Sora gulped, but nevertheless followed after her, where he was immediately pummelled by a kaleidoscopic headache of colour. From the walls, to the ceiling, to the furniture, just about everything in it had been splashed with paint, and it was getting harder to tell what was and wasn't an accident.
With an expectant smile, Relm grabbed one of the half dozen easels standing to attention. "So yeah, here's Doodle."
She pushed the easel over, dominoing the rest of them. Sitting in the middle of them like some ritual sacrifice was a creature forged entirely of darkness, with four wiry black limbs and two bright yellow eyes.
It blinked calmly at Sora.
"Heartless!" He cried, summoning his Keyblade immediately. The Heartless didn't even flinch, but instead it was Relm who wrapped herself around it.
"Don't hurt Doodle! He did nothing wrong!"
"But it… but it's a Heartless!" Sora gasped. "They're like the embodiment of evil! Why wouldn't you…?"
Sora's confusion grew limbs as the Heartless wobbled into her lap and just sat there, looking contented. If he didn't know better, he could've sworn it was purring.
"…okay, nothing makes any sense." He sighed. "So it's your pet now or something?"
"Ayup!" Relm said, scratching at Doodle's head. "He's super nice and eats bugs for me."
"Aren't you worried about it attacking you?"
"No? Why would I be?"
"The shopkeeper was attacked by a bunch of them. I think he's the reason."
"He is…?" Relm gasped. "Oh, Doodle! You're a dad and you didn't tell me?!"
Doodle just blinked up at her.
"Wouldn't say he's a dad, more like he's the original and the rest are clones? I think it's a he, anyway." Sora shrugged. "Either way this is bad news Relm. If there's one Heartless it means there's hundreds more, and stronger ones on the way."
"Speaking of clones…" Relm narrowed her eyes. "How do you fit in here?"
"Well…" Sora itched his hair. The kid was bright, for sure. "I sorta got turned into one for a while, so I guess I technically am one..?"
"Huh. And you look like a normal person because…?"
"Because I got turned back."
"And that just… happened?"
"Umm…" Sora stalled. Blurry images of Kairi, with her crimson hair and her loving embrace, swam through his mind like the rushing tide. "Honestly I uh… I'm a little fuzzy on the details," he shrugged. "But that's why all of… this happened. Sorry I can't give you a better answer."
"Hmmm…" Relm postured. "I guess it explains a lot. Like why I can summon spiky haired weirdos in my dreams now. So thanks I guess. Does this mean you gotta go report back to whoever's in charge?"
"W-what makes you think I'm not?" Sora took a step back.
"Oh, please…" Relm giggled. "Knocking on doors all morning? You were just following orders. So it'll be back to boring and quiet once you're gone… huh?"
"I dunno if we're going back just yet…" Sora said. "We've gotta monitor the situation, see if any more Heartless outbreaks happen, and I'm not sure how I feel about Doodle here."
"You hurt him and I'll hurt you!" Relm hugged it tighter.
"That's what I'm afraid of," he smiled sadly. "Either way, I guess we gotta find a hotel or something. There's one around here, right?"
"There's one across town, but the guy who runs it might hate you." Relm deadpanned. "Gramps might be able to put in a good word if you ask nicely. If not… I've got a tent you can borrow?"
"Fair enough," Sora laughed. "Well, thanks for your help. It was nice meeting you."
With a friendly nod, Sora gave his goodbyes, and met up with a stern looking Strago at the bottom of the stairs. With one eyebrow permanently arched, he agreed to sweet talk the hotel owner to let them stay a while.
"Thanks again for your help," Sora bowed repeatedly. "We won't be here too long, I promise."
"Worry not Sora, we won't run you out of town just yet," Strago managed a smile. "I was just thinking, perhaps it would be nice for Relm to have some company. Visit her if you can spare a moment, would you?"
"I-I'd love to," Sora smiled. "There's still a couple things I'd like to talk about with her."
"As long as none of those things put her at risk, you have my blessing." Strago said. With a sage nod, the old man bade them farewell and made his way home again, disappearing into the dusk.
"What kinda things?" Goofy asked.
"I'll… fill you guys in soon." Sora said. "First things first; I'm starving."
Night was rapidly encroaching the town of Thamasa, and Sora sat between Donald and Goofy in an empty dining room, the table in front of them piled high with plates, courtesy of the hotel's curt but accommodating cook.
"S-so yeah, that about wraps it up." Sora belched, and drained a bottle of soda. "Stick around for a couple days, make sure nothing weird happens, get rid of Xigbar, and report back to Master Yen Sid. Sound good to you guys?"
"Mhmm!" Donald raised his glass.
"But what about the little Doodle?" Goofy queried.
"Still thinkin' about that one," Sora grimaced. "On one hand it's dangerous, but on the other… I really don't wanna upset a little kid."
"Well, ya know what they say Sora! Sleep on it!" Goofy slapped him on the back. "The answer'll come to you, I just know it!"
"You know what? Maybe you're right, Goof." Sora nodded. "Maybe I just need to think about it a bit."
The night wore on, and Sora and the guys slowly wound down, settling into respective beds at the hotel. Lamps were extinguished, doors were locked, and the whole village seemed to resign to slumber.
Well, almost the whole village.
Under the cloak of night, Xigbar had his arrows at the ready.
"It ain't my style kid, but I promised smoke."
