"There aren't many that can see me." She spoke -muttered-, and I couldn't help but notice how the Light pulsed in time with her words. Tiny pulses, waves. Deeper Meaning unravelled before my eyes.
Light carrying communication, bypassing barriers. She speaks, and all understand.
Communication between Hearts. Communication between Light and Darkness.
I can do that too.
I had no idea how I knew that, but I did.
My Darkness shifted, interacting with the Darkness around me, producing a shift and a change that propagated outwards. A meaning; a message.
Darkness is not as capable as Light at carrying messages. Darkness strips the message of everything, leaving naught but the message itself. The communication is soundless and voiceless, but it is made known regardless.
It is by instinct alone that I replicate it, that my thoughts form into a message, that the message is passed along the Darkness to her- and only to her.
"I would have been surprised if they could." I Spoke. And what a wonderful feeling that was. "Most beings cannot see those without a Body."
She nodded, a brief flicker of sadness appearing in her Heart. It was minor, infinitesimal, but it was present.
"You can, though."
"I am not most beings." I noted. "And, in the most literal sense, I am not truly a being at all."
And I wasn't.
I had no Heart. I had no Soul. I didn't even have a Body.
All I am is Darkness. It was a little horribly depressing when I thought about it.
Which is exactly why I tried to avoid thinking about it.
Light pulsed against me, washing around my form like a warm blanket. Though, perhaps that feeling was not the Light itself, but sheer Hope of the girl who, now that I was paying attention, I couldn't help but notice was hugging me.
Hugging me.
For a moment, I just stood there, not entirely sure how to react.
The hug felt good, though, I suppose.
Slowly, I returned the hug, wrapping my arms around the girl's small body, taking care not to hurt her. I blunted my claws entirely, well aware that they were normally capable of slicing right through hardened steel with barely any resistance. The girl didn't have a Body, but that didn't mean I wanted to find out if it was possible to cut a Heart and a Soul.
"You seemed sad."
"I was." Slowly, I broke off the hug, stepping back from the girl. "A warning, though. In the future, you might want to refrain from hugging those like me. They are not so restrained as I."
The Heartless would attempt devour her Heart in an instant, were they here. Her Heart was powerful, her Light was strong and her emotions were pure.
She was strong, I could easily sense that much, strong enough to defend herself from them for a long time, even from the more powerful Heartless, but...
Well, one could only ever delay the Heartless. Strong as she was, time and Darkness would eventually overwhelm her.
As it did for many things.
And I guess I wasn't helping when I showed up, being helpful and not attempting to devour all of existence. More to the point, it the fact that I wasn't immediately distinguishable from any other Heartless that was the problem; if I was different from the rest, then they'd naturally be more on guard when encountering a normal Heartless.
"What do you mean?" She asked, slightly confused. And concerned.
"The others, they would attempt to harm you. To harm everyone. They seek nothing save to devour all, and you would be best served to destroy them on sight."
She frowned, an expression at odds with her appearance. It was an expression that didn't belong on her face, too alien on the cheerful girl.
"But, how will I know them if I see them?"
"They'll look like me. Not all of them, but you should be able to identify them on sight."
I had an idea. My Darkness shifted, and produced a change- a simple change, truly, but one that would distinguish me from nearly every other Heartless.
The color of my eyes shifted, from the glowing, hungry, yellow, to a gentle, softened but still luminous blue.
"If you want to tell me apart from them, I'll be the one with the blue eyes."
I liked blue. It was my favorite color.
We spent well over an hour talking, after that. After the morbid subjects were over.
She talked about anything and everything, just happy to have somebody to talk to, I guess.
I talked for the simple reason that I can talk. It was such a wonderful thing, not having to write on paper, not having to wait for others to read what I was saying, no more longs gaps in conversations, not having to physically act to gain someone's attention...
Talking was an ability I missed, and after the years, I was quite glad to have it back. I didn't talk much; over the years I had also grown used to not being able to speak, and writing down everything I wanted to say had led to me writing down what I thought was important. Sure, the ability to corrupt a random object and make writing appear made the whole thing a lot easier, but it still wasn't as convenient as talking.
Despite the fact that I didn't talk much, I'm still fairly certain that I spoke more words in that entire chat than I had written in a full 2 weeks.
It was easy to get lost in conversation with Madoka -The girl's name, as I eventually learned-, she was just a very happy and very nice girl. I wouldn't have minded to staying and talking to her longer, but, well, I couldn't. There was Shikaku back home, and Yoshino, and Shikamaru.
"Will you come back?"
"Of course. I always have a lot of free time when they're sleeping. Though, before I leave, is there anything I can help you with?"
I followed Madoka through the city, as she led me to another girl. Truthfully, she could have gone straight there and I could have followed with ease, but this was the 'long way', giving us a little bit more time to talk.
Homura Akemi was the name of the girl she was leading me to. She'd asked me to pass a message to her, a request that I had been more than happy to oblige.
When we arrived and I found out that Homura Akemi also happened to be the same girl who shot me with a rocket launcher, I honestly wasn't sure how to react.
I quickly figured out how to react, however, when she promptly turned around with a very large, blackened bow clutched in her hands, an arrow seeming made of energy already notched on a string also seemingly made of energy and aimed at me.
It was the narrowing of eyes and a soft, near-completely-silent "You..." that told me that the girl recognized me.
"Yes. Me. The person you shot with a rocket launcher."
Kyubey, I couldn't help but notice, was perched on her shoulder, utterly unperturbed by her sudden turn and the materialization of her bow.
Her fingers clenched a little tighter, and I held my hands up in mock surrender. "Relax, I'm not here to fight you, I'm just here to pass a message."
"Message?" She asked, her stance not quite as tensed as before, so I took that as a good sign.
"From Madoka."
I still regret the fact that I didn't have a mouth, and thus couldn't smile as her eyes went wide in shock.
"She asked me to give you her thanks."
Homura's mouth hung open, still completely shocked. Her bow slipped from her hands, but it seemed that she didn't notice.
To the side, unseen by all but me, Madoka giggled a little.
"Thank you." Madoka said, a radiant smile still on her face.
I turned my head to look at her, simultaneously waving to her and speaking.
"You're welcome. I'll be back later, Madoka."
And, with that, I slipped into a Corridor of Darkness, grabbing my Gummi Block before exiting the World.