If it were up to me..... ~ My Kingdom Hearts 3 ~ REPOST

Moving Out: Radiant Garden

"What are you doing?" Sora asked Aiko, who had her head in her hands.

"Regulating aura levels."

"She means 'regulating pain levels'."

She conjured an aura knife and threw it at Roxas. "Shut up."

The keyblade wielder gave her a concerned look. "What pain?"

"Dealing with Roxas." She looked up. "Okay, I was half-joking, but having two people in your mind can give you an awful headache. There also seems to be a lot of strong magical items floating around on different worlds that are messing with my head. We can't go to them all."

"We need ta narrow down our options," agreed Goofy. "But how?"

"Without a more specific energy signature, I can't do that." Aiko reminded them. "Unless we can figure out more about the Key..."

"You know who might know something else?" Sora asked suddenly. "Merlin!"

Aiko blinked. "You mean Merlin the Magician? He lives in Radiant Garden, right?"

Sora nodded. "We could ask him if he knows anything. Or at least go through his books."

"I dunno... Has anybody even found the Key before?"

 "Of course! How else would people know about it?"

"You don't want an Aiko-answer to that. She'll go all technical."

She frowned. "I happen to like technicalities! And, uh, being difficult. But," she sighed. "It's something. And we need all the information we can get."

"So are we going?" Donald asked.

"Yep!" Sora grinned. "Let's go!"

____________

"There've been almost no heartless ever since the Battle of 1000 Heartless." Leon was saying as they walked up to the castle. "They pop up sometimes, but no big incidents."

"Well, that's good." Goofy said. "I guess that means this world isn't being affected by the growing darkness.

"Hm."

Sora turned towards the aurawielder. "Something wrong, Aiko?"

"Nah, just an idea." Her left hand fiddled with the sword around her neck. "You said heartless are still showing up, right, Leon?"

"Yes."

"Mostly around here, the castle."

"I'm almost afraid to ask..." Donald started. "But what's this idea of yours?"

Aiko stopped walking, making the others turn around to face her. "Quick review: In the two worlds we've been visited so far, where we most of the heartless?"

"Uh..." Goofy titled his head as he thought. "Around power things?"

"Things with high energy levels, yeah." She held up a hand. " And we all know heartless are attracted to the keyblade."

"So what's your point?"  Leon asked, crossing his arms.

"My point is, maybe heartless are also attracted to high energy sources. There's a possibly there's something powerful in the castle."

"But wouldn't you have picked it up already?" Sora asked.

Aiko frowned. "Exactly. But I didn't..."

"It may be worth taking a look at," Leon agreed. "Anything powerful might be useful, especially with Merlin away."

"Wait, Merlin's not here?" Sora turned around. "I thought you were taking us to him!"