Kingdom Hearts; The Heartless Keeper

Chapter XXIII; Hero

Yuki looked around the world she had just entered. It was another new world to her. Before her was a large arena of some kind, statues stood on either side with swords crossing over the doorway. There were boards up with lists of names. Yuki assumed they were for tournaments this world was recorded to hold occasionally.

Yuki slowly walked into the arena. She could hear the cheers of a large group from inside. A tournament must have been occurring at this very moment. Yuki slipped into the arenas stands to hide amongst the crowd. In the arena, she saw a man fighting off Heartless. She frowned watching him defeat the Heartless. There seemed to be plenty of them. Why would she have to increase their numbers?

Yuki watched a little while more, waiting for what seemed like the perfect moment. When the man defeated all of the Heartless he turned to the crowd, waving with a smile. His eyes scanned the crowd, watching the spectators faces. When his eyes met Yuki's, his smile faded a bit. Yuki shrugged and snapped her fingers. For a second her eyes flashed bright yellow, like the eyes of a Shadow.

The crowd gave a gasp as a large group of Heartless appeared behind the hero. He turned to face them quickly, clenching his fist at his side. He charged at the Heartless without hesitation. Off to the side of the arena, a fat little goat man ran back and forth in a panic. The crowd, however, didn't seem to notice anything wrong. They cheered loudly as they watched the hero fight.

It only took him a few minutes to defeat the extra Heartless. Yuki smiled, impressed with his strength. She summoned more Heartless into the arena. The hero ground his teeth together before beginning the fight once again. The fat goat man looked ready to pass out from stress.

This repeated several times. Yuki would summon Heartless for the hero to fight. The hero would defeat them then yell a few words to the goat man, then Yuki would summon more Heartless. The cycle was repeating itself over and over again.

Yuki left a greater pause than normal between the Heartless. She was thinking of other ways to complete her mission. Pressure the hero into turning into a Heartless. She could always just steal his heart. But that would be difficult with such a large crowd. The little Heartless had worn him out, but Yuki figured it would take a lot more to break him.

Yuki tipped her head to the side with a small smile. Once again the heroes eyes had landed on her. Yuki whistled softly, four notes in an upward progression. The sound echoed through the arena more than it should have, making the crowd look around, finally realizing something was off.

Behind the hero formed a large vortex of shadows. From the shadows, a large bird spread its wings. The Heartless sigil was in clear view on its chest. The hero turned to face the Phoenix in shock. But the shock only delayed him a second. He charged straight at the Phoenix, ready to take it down.

He put up more of a fight than Yuki thought. He grabbed onto the black and white flame covered tail and used that to throw the bird around. When he released the birds tail it took to the sky and turned on him. It shot balls of darkness at the hero who managed to roll aside at just the right time. As he charged at the Heartless again the bird shot beams of light at him, knocking him to the very edge of the arena. The crowd had gone silent by now, knowing this wasn't planned for. Yuki was able to hear the heroes words now.

"Since when have Heartless used light?" The hero questioned. The Phoenix gave him no time to ponder as it flew at him with its claws extended. The hero rolled to the side but was knocked back by the bird's wings. The bird's claws grabbed hold of him and hit him on the ground several times. It dropped the hero and landed on top of him, a claw placed on his chest to hold him down. It lowered its head, an electric blue eye trained on the person under its foot. All it needed was the order and he would be no more. The hero was pushing on the claw trying to get free. But his strength had been worn down by the constant fights. He would turn into a Heartless if Yuki ordered it.