Chapter 57

Pure of Heart

Mickey pulled Sora out of the MRI machine and Sora turned to sit up. "How's it look?" Sora asked.

Mickey examined the X-Ray images. He smiled when he saw that there did not seem to be anything out of the ordinary. "Looks like you'll be fine," he said. "Whatever injuries you sustained during the fight with Kuja, they're all healed up."

"Really?" Sora stretched his arms over his head. "Then why do I still feel like I got hit by a truck?"

Mickey shrugged. "Fatigue," he guessed. "Your muscles are sore. Curaga might have repaired all damage, but the beating we got left us all physically exhausted. I guess the best thing we can really do for ourselves is rest."

Sora shrugged. "Well, then, I'll see you when I wake up," he said as he began to walk out of the medical bay.

As he turned to walk down the hallway to his room, Kairi walked by him from that direction and grabbed him by the arm. "Oh, no you don't, you lazy bum," she scolded as she dragged him along. "Riku's piloting the ship, Mickey's keeping everything running, and I'm cooking dinner. We're just as exhausted as you. You are not leaving all the work to us while you take a nap. The least you can do is help me in the kitchen."

Sora sighed and shook his head. "So close," he mumbled to himself before he turned to walk alongside Kairi semi-willingly.

Sora set the table while Kairi passed the food around. "Okay, a Lasagna al Forno for me, Sora and Riku, a Taelpar Harvest Galette for the king, an Oil-Drizzled Steamed Fish for Donald, and Prairie-Style Skewers for Goofy. Enjoy," Kairi said. She sat down and everyone began eating. Mickey and Donald tied their napkins around their necks while Riku opened his napkin up and laid it in his lap. Sora had removed his gloves and jacket before he and Kairi started cooking, and at the start of the meal Donald and Goofy removed their hats.

"Mmm… This is delicious. Thanks, Kairi," Riku complimented.

"A-hyuck. Yeah, this is really good," Goofy agreed. Donald nodded.

"Hey! I cooked too!" Sora protested. Mickey and Kairi laughed, followed by Riku, Donald and Goofy. Sora pouted for a brief moment before joining in as well.

While everyone was eating, Jiminy hopped up onto the table and took out his journal. Everyone gave him their attention, recognizing that he wanted to discuss matters

"So, Jiminy, what'd you figure out?" Goofy asked.

Jiminy opened the journal to the section dedicated to notes on the artifact hunt. "I believe that I've made sense of a few more details that would help us on our search," he said. "It appears we finally have confirmation on the qualifications of a so-called 'guardian' of these items. Specifically, they are highly-trusted figures. Our conversations with the king of Corona and Emperor Kuzco proved that this does not mean they are all rulers of their respective worlds, but they must possess the resources to hide and protect it."

"Yeah. We already figured that," Riku pointed out. "But it's good to know for sure."

"Next, I have gathered multiple key points on the nature and characteristics of each individual object," Jiminy continued. "First off, they are indestructible. We know this because Mozenrath intended to use a wind jackal to disintegrate the entire city of Agrabah, but he was confident that the artifact would remain intact."

"That would definitely make sense," Donald agreed. "Something that could let you change reality isn't going to break just like that."

"Second, they can be made to take on different forms to better conceal them. This was confirmed when Kefka and the witch doctor mentioned that the item in Beast's Castle was in the form of a clock. And, obviously, the artifact in Empire of Llamas did not bear a similar form."

"That still leaves the question of how we're going to track them down," Kairi reminded him after swallowing a bite of her lasagna.

"True. That's still a conundrum. But there might be a way to narrow the search."

"How do you mean?" Mickey asked.

"Kuja mocked you for thinking that the artifact could be a large tablet," Jiminy explained. He began to pace back and forth. "He didn't just say that you were looking at the wrong thing, or that you were close but not close enough; he just plain made fun of you for being so far off. It's as if he expected someone who was following their trail to have the sense to look for something that looked something even remotely like the actual thing."

Goofy scratched the top of his head contemplatively, then his eyes widened and he gasped at a realization. He grabbed one of his skewers and held it vertically upward. "Maybe it's supposed to be shaped kinda like this," he suggested.

The others looked at the skewer in confusion, trying to see what he was getting at, but they soon understood. "You mean tall, straight and thin, like how that idol looked like a man standing upright?" Sora asked. Goofy nodded.

"Huh. I guess that makes sense," Mickey said. "But why would they keep them in that shape? And why would they all need to be in that shape? If their guardians can change them into any form, why leave them in that frame?"

"That's a question for another time," Riku said. "Nice work, Jiminy. That really helps. It at least gives us something to keep an eye on as we continue our journey."

"Yeah. And if we keep traveling to other worlds and running into those guys, we're sure to make sense of it all, and maybe even get ahead of them," Sora affirmed, his mouth full of food and sauce around his lips. He finished chewing and swallowed his food and burped.

Kairi giggled. "So, what's our next destination?" she asked.

"Castle of Dreams," Donald answered. "That's where Cinderella lives."

"Huh. You know, I never actually got the chance to meet Cinderella," she admitted. "And Naminé didn't get any memory data from Sora on her, so I can't even picture her from what she knew."

"Really?" Sora said, puzzled. "Oh, yeah. I guess you didn't. We sort of had to get out of Hollow Bastion before Cinderella and the other Princesses really woke up. And I didn't really talk to her much when we went back. We were more concerned with sealing the Keyhole and seeing that Jasmine and Alice were okay."

"Uh, I'm still kinda confused," Donald admitted. "Why did Ansem need the Seven Princesses of Heart again?"

Silence fell over the group as they tried to remember and piece together what had actually happened. After a minute, Sora began his attempt at explaining.

"Ansem wanted to open the Door to Darkness to get more dark power, but he seemed to think it was Kingdom Hearts, even though Kingdom Hearts was light," he began, speaking slowly, somewhat uncertainly. "Somehow, that involved unsealing the Keyhole in Hollow Bastion, which he needed the Seven Princesses of Heart to do. He had Maleficent, the Heartless, and Riku kidnap the Princesses and gather them in front of the Keyhole. He also created a dark Keyblade that could unlock people's hearts, and took out six of the seven princesses' hearts with it, and wanted to use it to get Kairi's heart out of me. Since they all have hearts of pure light that couldn't be corrupted by the darkness, the hearts didn't become Heartless but they instead got trapped inside the Keyblade, or something. I beat him and used the Keyblade of People's Hearts to set Kairi's heart free, removing my heart as well, and that destroyed Ansem's Keyblade… somehow…"

"Let's just chalk that up to 'Heroic Sacrifice Light Magic'," Kairi said.

Sora shrugged. "The Keyhole was still unsealed because the Seven Princesses were all together, even though the Keyblade that housed six of their hearts was destroyed, so Ansem didn't really need that Keyblade in the first place," he continued. "So he went to the Door to Darkness, we beat him, and he caused the Door to open. He thought he would be filled with whatever dark power was in Kingdom Hearts, but then he was destroyed by the light of… what I think was the actual Kingdom Hearts… but then the light faded and on the other side of the door was the Realm of Darkness. Then we closed it, and Mickey and I used our Keyblades to lock it."

Goofy scratched the top of his head again. "Uh, I still don't get it," he admitted. "For one, why did Kingdom Hearts shine out of the Door to Darkness, then disappear?"

"Well, you see, the Door to Darkness bridged the dimensions between light and dark," Mickey explained. "And, from what I've been able to guess, the Kingdom Keys, the Keyblade from the Realm of Light and the Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness, have some connection to Kingdom Hearts, though I'm not entirely sure how."

"So, the proximity between both Kingdom Keys, on either side of the Door to Darkness bridging between dimensions, reached out to Kingdom Heats and bade it to shine its light through the Door, if even for a moment?" Jiminy suggested. "I guess it makes sense that it would show up long enough to prove Ansem wrong and vanish as soon as he was destroyed, then let you guys finish the work yourselves, if Kingdom Hearts had a level of sentience. It could have shown up just to pass judgment on Ansem and also make your job a bit easier."

"Yeah. I guess that makes sense," Sora agreed, nodding. "Sort of. Maybe. So, Ansem needed the Seven Princesses of Heart, Kairi, Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, Alice, Snow White, and Aurora, to unseal the Hollow Bastion Keyhole, which somehow unlocked the Door to Darkness, and tried to get power from the Realm of Darkness, while convincing himself for some reason that it was Kingdom Hearts. Anyone still confused?" Everyone hesitantly raised their hands. Sora breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. It's not just me."

Everyone voiced their questions and concerns regarding Ansem's bizarre plot.

"Why did the Door to Darkness appear on the Heartless world?"

"How did Ansem make the Keyblade? I've been wondering for most of the time I was possessed."

"If he knew that much about the Heartless and Kingdom Hearts, why did he think Kingdom Hearts was darkness?"

"Why did he need the Keyblade of Hearts? Did he want to do something with us after the Door to Darkness thing was over?"

Jiminy whistled, encouraging everyone to quiet down. "Kairi raised an excellent point," he said. "Why did he need the Princesses' hearts trapped in the Keyblade? He could have had Maleficent keep the Princesses in stasis until they were all gathered together, then the Keyhole would have been opened automatically. Granted, Kairi's heart being within Sora proved to be cause for a change in plans, but I doubt there was only one way of doing that. Perhaps… Perhaps he had a further use for the Princesses. Perhaps there was more to their pure lights that Ansem hoped to take advantage of."

Mickey shifted his gaze nervously. Riku noticed this, but he was more focused on Jiminy's words and thus did not press him.

Donald shrugged. "I guess we might never know," he said. "Ansem's gone, isn't he?"

"He is, but when a person's Heartless and Nobody are destroyed, the Somebody is reborn," Riku reminded him. "And we beat both Ansem and Xemnas, but the original person, Xehanort, was nowhere to be seen."

"Correct," Jiminy affirmed. "But for now, I guess there's nothing we can do to explore the matter further unless something else comes to light."

Mickey nodded. "You're right. The most we can do is focus on our current objectives and keep an eye out for anything unusual."

Everyone nodded in agreement. They could not think of anything to continue the conversation, so they finished their dinner in silence.

Riku yawned. "That was delicious," he said. Sora and Kairi thanked him. Riku stood up and departed from the table. "Well, I think we might as well take a nap. We've been up for two days straight and we still need time to recover from the fight with Kuja."

Sora wiped the sauce off of his mouth. "Fine by me," he agreed. He and Kairi cleared the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher, then they all exited the kitchen and headed for their rooms.

As everyone was entering their rooms, Kairi stopped with one foot in the doorway and poked her head back out. "You know," she said, getting everyone's attention and causing them to stick their heads out to hear her, "I think it'd be nice to pay Cinderella a visit."

Sora smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Let's do that, ASAP," he agreed. They all went in and closed their doors, then kicked their shoes off and laid in bed. They clapped their hands simultaneously, causing the lights to turn off.